innocense is bliss
by demonspawn187
Summary: AU Can jack take care of an emotionally damaged daniel, or will he cause more damage in the process. Warning: Non Con
1. Chapter 1

Innocence IS BLISS

Part 1

"Danyael, its time to come home."

"But I'm having fun, cant I stay for a little while longer, Hassan hasn't finished his story."

" No, it is time to come home, you are worrying our father, and sister says that you forgot to bring water again." Skaara gave Daniel a firm look, the one he always gave him when he had done something that they both knew he would be getting in trouble.

"Why would he need to bring water, we are still in the village. Besides, I have plenty, as does everyone else." Hassan spoke up.

"That isn't the point, he still left without telling anyone, and we were worried. Come, Danyael." Daniel looked at his brother, and decided he didn't want to argue anymore. Getting up from where he'd been sitting he turned to Hassan. "Bye Hassan, I'll come back later."

"Very well Danyael, try to stay out of trouble. I'll finish the story during our next visit."

Daniel and Skaara left the tent and headed towards theirs. Daniel kept silent; he could tell that Skaara wasn't very happy with him.

" Is father angry with me?"

Skaara looked at his brother. Even though Daniel was older than him, he still considered him a little brother. It was hard to consider him anything else. He was too much like a child. At one point he'd been normal, but ever since he had fallen and struck his head, he'd been much more like a child, and it was easier to think of him as a little brother. Besides, he was still a virgin, he'd asked his sister, and she'd told him that Daniel had admitted that he had never been with anyone. This made it even easier to think of him as a little brother.

"Yes, he is. Anything could have happened, and you didn't even tell us where you were going. We have told you many times not to leave without saying anything"  
Daniel hung his head. He didn't like it when he made his family upset, he loved them and it made him sad. " I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare anyone; I just wanted to hear the rest of Hassan's story. He was telling me about his family I didn't mean to scare anyone."

Skaara sighed and shook his head.

"I know, here, we are home, go talk to father. Go on, he's waiting." Daniel walked in and waited for his father to acknowledge him.

"Danyael, where were you?"  
"I was with Hassan, he was telling-

"What have we told you about just leaving without saying anything. We don't just tell you these things because we enjoy it. We are trying to keep you safe."

"Safe from what. We know everyone in the village, and Hassan is my friend."  
"Never the less, you need to remember to tell us where you are going." Kasuf looked at his adopted son, he patted him on the shoulder and held his face. He loved the man just as much as he loved his two natural children. If he hadn't been for the accident that had left him this way, he would have asked Daniel to marry his daughter. He was a noble and kind man. You couldn't ask for a better person. He still had all of the qualities that made him unique, the child-like curiosity and thirst for knowledge was still there. Just now it truly was child-like.

"But Hassan would never do anything to hurt me, and I didn't leave the village."

" I know, just try to remember to tell us where you are going, okay."  
"Okay, father. Can I go back to Hassan's now?"

With an exasperated sigh Kasuf nodded his head and waved Daniel off. With a delighted smile on his face Daniel hugged his father and ran off towards the other end of the village. Not watching where he was, Daniel ran into his sister. Reaching out a hand to steady them both,

"Where are you going in such a rush, little brother?"

"Back to Hassan's, he's going to finish his story."  
"Did you talk to father."  
Rolling his eyes Daniel nodded his head.

"Yes, we just finished." He squirmed and tried to go around his sister.

"Did you listen to what he told you?"

"Yes. Remember to tell someone where I am going before I leave."  
Smiling she sent him on his way.

"Remember to be back before supper."  
"Okay."

Going into the tent that the family shared, Sha're and her sister-in-law began to get everything ready for the evening meal. Skaara and his wife had married over a month ago. They had their own home next to his father's, but they shared all of their meals, so Skaara and Asashi spent much of their day with Kasuf and Shar'e.

Asashi smiled at her sister-in-law.

"How is Daniel, I heard you talking to him."

"Same as always, sometimes it's hard to remember that he is a man and not a little boy."

"Except for his body he is a little boy. His mind is that of a child. Skaara told me what happen. Was it the fall that made his mind like that or the fever?"  
" We don't know. It was probably both. At first we thought it was temporary, but after many days, we realized that it wasn't. "  
"I don't understand. Many people have had fever and it has never had that effect on them."

" The healer thinks that it is because Danyael isn't from here."

"Does he know that?"  
"Yes, but I do not think he understands. Besides, Skaara and I love just as much as we would love a natural brother. And our father feels just as strongly."

Asashi and Shar'e continued to talk while they prepared the evening meal. Kasuf and his father sat outside of their homes. The sun over Abdyos was setting. The sky was a brilliant shade of orange and red. Kasuf looked at the sky.

"Your brother should be on his way home."  
"I know." Skaara turned to his father

"Father, can I say something?"  
"You do not have to ask me, son, you are married now, and therefore you are a man. You can say what you please."

"I do not trust Hassan."

"What do you mean, do you have a reason for this?"  
"No, but I have seen the way he looks at Danyael, I do not think that he should be alone with him. My brother does not notice these things."  
"We have no reason to think ill of Hassan, and your brother thinks highly of him. Unless you are given a reason to think otherwise, leave it alone. Danyael is after all a man, he can take care of himself"  
"I hope you are right."

Skaara and his father looked up towards the village. Daniel was coming back from the other side.

"Here is your brother, keep your thoughts to yourself. You do not want to upset him."

Daniel came running up to the family camp. The look on his face was hard to miss. He looked like he wanted to cry, but he was trying not to.

"Danyael, what's wrong little brother?"  
"Nothing, I just don't feel very well right now." As he spoke, he didn't meet his brother's eyes, he just went into their tent and laid down. Skaara looked at his father.

" I wonder what's wrong with him."  
"He already said that he doesn't feel well, perhaps he will in the morning."  
Kasuf dismissed his son's action and went into the dwelling to wait for dinner. Skaara on the other hand thought that there was something wrong with his little brother. He had never acted this way before, and it worried him. He decided to leave it be for now and worry about it later.

The villagers gathered around the gate as the chevrons activated. They watched as the splash came and Jack O'Neill stepped through. The rest of his team followed. Captain Carter and the linguist the base had given him for this mission tumbled through the gate and landed on their asses.

"Helluva ride isn't it."  
"Why are we here anyway. I mean, what good is this going to do."

"I don't know, the brass wanted us here, so we're going to look around, talk to the natives, besides, one of our people from the original mission should still be here."

"Do you mean Dr. Jackson, sir."  
The resident linguist, Dr. Leeson, made himself known.

"I was under the impression that he died during the original expedition."  
"Yeah, well reports aren't always accurate. Could you make with the whole first contact thing and ask the nice people if they have seen Dr. Jackson."

Stumbling over the dialect, he asked the natives if they had seen Daniel.

"Well?" Jack asked impatiently.

"They said that he's with his family in the village, as far as I can tell."  
"As far as you can tell?"  
"Well, it's a very obscure dialect, and I'm no expert."  
"Can you get one of them to lead us to the village?"  
Leeson turned to the man he'd been talking to and asked.

"He says that it isn't very far, just over the ridge."

"Thank the man and we'll be on our way."  
The team headed towards the village. The sun beating down in their eyes the whole time. Jack was thankful that he remembered to wear his sunglasses.

"Look, I can see the village from here, it wasn't that far, you can see the gate from, hell I bet you can hear it."

"Well let's go see if the rest of the locals know we're here." The team walked through the village. Many of the villagers stared at them; some even came up to them.

"It looks like they still remember you, sir."  
"Well let's use it to our advantage. Ask them if they've seen our guy."  
Leeson stared up from the campsite he'd been giving all of his attention.

Jack rolled his eyes.

"I said to ask them where Dr. Jackson is."

"Oh, yes, of course."  
Leeson turned to one of the men and asked his question.

"He says that his family lives at the other end of the village, he says they will know where he is."  
"Well, lets go."

Walking through the village, the team looked at everyone going about their business.

"Why would Dr. Jackson want to stay here?"  
"He was an archeologist; he was living what he studied. Why wouldn't he?"

"Well, let's see if he's changed his mind." Just as he finished his sentence Jack saw Kasuf

"Hey, I know that guy, he'll know where Daniel is. HEY!"

Kasuf turned around and saw Jack.

Coming towards them he started to talk rapidly. Jack turned to Leeson.

"Well, what is he saying?"  
"Hold on a minute." Leeson listened for a minute, then turned to Jack.

"He says that he thought you might come back. Daniel is in their home. As far as I can tell, he said something about their being an accident not to be surprised."  
Kasuf led them to his home. inside Daniel was still sleeping. When the light shined into the tent, Daniel stirred and woke up.

"It's just me son, I have visitors with me."

Daniel didn't even seem as if he heard his father.

"These people came through the chappa'ia. Remember when I told you that you came from a place distant from here?"  
Daniel just continued to stare at the canvas

"Well, these people come from the same place. Do you understand?"  
Again Daniel just stared.

"I need to talk to them, we will be in your brother's if you need me, okay?"

"Hey, where are we going?" jack asked.

Kasuf turned to the frantic colonel.

Leeson translated

"He said that we are just going to another tent so we can talk in peace"

"What did he say to him before he left out of here?"  
Leeson turned to Kasuf.

'He said that he told Daniel who we were and where we were going."  
"Did he say why he's all zonked out like that?"  
"No sir, not yet."  
Kasuf turned to the strangers spoke.

"What did he just say?"  
"He wants to know if we plan on taking Daniel back with us."  
"Why?"  
Leeson relayed the question to Kasuf.

"He says that we might be able to take better care of him. Apparently there was an accident shortly after the first team left. Daniel fell and struck his head on a rock. There was some sort of infection or fever. As far as I can make out he was sick for a long time. When he recovered he suffered from what basically amounts to brain damage, apparently he's very child like now."

Jack looked at Kasuf

"Why does he think we can take better care of him, there's something he isn't telling us."  
Leeson told Kasuf what Jack had said.

"He says there is. He says that you might want to sit down for this."

As Kasuf talked, Leeson translated

"He says that even before the accident, Daniel was a very trusting person. He says now being the way that he is makes it impossible for him to tell when people wish ill of him. He makes friends easily and one of the men, in he village, Hassan, took a liking to him."

"I'm not gong to like this am I?" Jack spoke for the first time since Kasuf had started talking.

" I don't think so. He says one-day Daniel came back from Hassan's. He says that Daniel was acting strangely. It seems that his son pointed this out, but he dismissed it. Yesterday when Daniel was late coming home his brother went looking for him. He went by Hassan's, since that was where he usually was."  
Leeson paused in the middle of his narrative.

"Are you sure you want to hear the rest, colonel O'Neill?"  
"I'm pretty sure I already have an idea of what happen, go on."  
"Very well. When Skaara walked up to the tent he heard noises, so he went in."  
Leeson took a deep breath and continued.

"Hassan and two other men besides Daniel were in there with him. They'd stripped him of his clothes and were, forcing themselves, onto him. Daniel was crying and screaming, but one of them was covering his mouth. Skaara ran into the tent and stopped them. They were executed a few hours later."  
"Why were they executed, they didn't deny it" Carter asked

After asking Carter's question, Leeson gave her the answer

"No, in fact they tried to say that Daniel consented, which is the main reason they were found guilty. He's been withdrawn and distant ever since all of this happen."  
"Well hell, he's in shock, I think that it's safe to say that Daniel will be coming back with us."

"I would have to agree sir, we can do more for him than they can here."  
"Thank you for the obvious, Carter."

"I'll call radio for a med team."

Carter left the tent and went outside to radio base.

Jack looked at the other man. He saw the hurt look on the man's face.

Kasuf began to speak again.

"He didn't want to say this in front of Captain Carter. He blames himself for this. He says that if he'd paid attention to Daniel more, none of this would have happened."

Jack looked at the other man. He could what it was like to blame yourself for something horrible that happen to your children.

"Tell him that he couldn't of known what was happening. The only people at fault are the ones that took advantage of Daniel."  
Leeson repeated what was said.

"He says thank you for your confidence, but it doesn't make him feel any less responsible. He also wants to know who will take care of Daniel."  
"He'll be looked after. When he recovers, we'll make sure he has somewhere to live"  
Leeson relayed the message.

Carter came in as Kasuf was talking.

"Sir, the med team is on its way, we need to get ready to leave. They're already through the gate."  
Jack stood up and groaned as knees protested from misuse.

"Well, lets go get Daniel ready, if Kasuf wants to come, he can, tell him that."  
Leeson turned to the older man and spoke.

"He says he's grateful for the offer, but that his place is here, but his family will see us off."  
"I understand, well I'm going to go check on Carter."  
Outside, Carter and the medical team were getting things situated. They had brought a stretcher through and were getting ready to go into the other tent.

"Carter, can I talk to you for a minute?"  
She finished directing the med team and went to see what Jack wanted.

"Sir?"  
"Listen, I just want to apologize for snapping at you. This whole situation is just fucked up beyond reason."  
"Don't worry, sir, I wont hold it against you. I was briefing the med team, they're ready to go, we just need to get Daniel."

"Let's go then."  
Carter nodded and signaled the med team to follow her.

The med team went into Skaara's tent to collect Daniel.

"Lets get him onto the stretcher." The two men lifted Daniel onto the stretcher and strapped him down.

Suddenly there was a high pitched, keening sound coming from Daniel.

"What's wrong with him, why is he making that sound." The two airmen carrying the stretcher stared at their patient.

"He's just scared." Carter bent over and tried to calm him down

"Daniel, honey we're not going to hurt you."  
The noise became louder and louder until he was practically screaming.

"Should we sedate him?"

"Go ahead, it will probably make everything a lot easier."  
The two medics set the stretcher down. One sergeant filled a syringe with a tranquilizer while the other held his arm. A few minutes after they administered the drug, Daniel was asleep.

"All right lets get him through the gate and back to base."  
The caravan of people headed out of the village, two people carrying the stretcher that held Daniel. His sister and brother followed close behind, Shar'e carrying his bag of belongings. Skaara and Shar'e talked quietly to each other.

"Do you think this is a good idea? I don't think that we should let him go."  
"Why? This time I agree with father. I think it would be best if we let the off worlders take care of Daniel. They know a lot more about than we do."  
"But we are his family."  
"Which is why we are going to do what is best for him and let him go."  
"What will Danyael think? We haven't even thought what he will think of all of this."  
"He doesn't know what's best for himself anymore. He hasn't for a long time. You and father keep forgetting that. Look at what happened when father tried to treat him like and adult."  
Shar'e stopped arguing and walked beside her brother. They had reached the gate. The event horizon was shimmering in the high morning sun.

Jack stopped the party in front of the gate.

"Let's give them a chance to say goodbye before we leave."

Skaara and Shar'e stood next to their adopted brother. The man they had loved as a brother for over a year. Shar'e whispered in his ear and kissed his brow. Skaara did the same, then he nodded to Jack. The team walked through the gate with their newest addition.

Skaara and his sister stood there until the gate shut down. Then they walked home, and hoped they'd done the right thing.

SGC  
With everyone safely through the gate it was shut down. General Hammond met them at the bottom of the ramp.

"What happen to Dr. Jackson, why the hell did you need a med team?"  
"Sir, I think it would be best if we waited until the briefing, right now we need to get Daniel to the infirmary."

"Very well, briefing is in an hour. Dismissed."  
"Thank you sir."

Jack and his team went to the locker room to shower, while Hammond made a stop at the infirmary.

The staff had already moved Daniel into a bed. They were busy giving him an exam and hooking him up to the necessary equipment.

"Where's Dr. Frasier?"  
"Right here, General."  
"How is Dr. Jackson?"  
" I'll have a full medical report ready for the briefing. We're almost done here."

"Okay, I'll see you in 15 minutes Dr."  
"Yes sir."

Hammond left the infirmary and went to briefing room. Jack and his team were already there.

"Dr. Frasier will be with us shortly, until then, Colonel, please starting the briefing."  
"Thank you sir. When my team and I exited the gate there was a group of people standing near. I instructed Dr. Leeson to ask them where we could find Dr. Jackson. On of them told us that we could find him. He had an accident a while back and suffered from brain damage. This has nothing to do with his current state, however."  
"What is his current state?"

Jack turned to his acting second in command and the captain took over.

"As far as I could tell sir, he's in shock, and from what Kasuf told us, I'm not surprised."

"What exactly did he tell you?"

Carter wondered if she had a right to tell the general what they had learned. It was something highly personal.

"Captain Carter."  
"Sir, I don't know if I have a right to…"  
"Captain, whatever you tell me will only help us in treating Dr. Jackson."

Dr. Frasier entered the briefing and took a seat next to the General.

"Apparently, Daniel- Dr. Jackson, was sexually assaulted by a group of men the day before we arrived, the attack left him in a state of shock. From what his father told us this has been going on for a while. The other day was probably just the situation at it's worst."

"How could this go for so long, why didn't Dr. Jackson do something?" the General asked.  
" Soon after the original mission, Dr. Jackson suffered from a head that left him with, permanent damage. From what we were able to gather, the brain damage left him with the emotional and mental age of a child."  
"Well, everything in my report corroborates this. There was bruising and tearing present his wrist and ankles The X-rays we took showed that he does have an old injury. I'm not surprised at this revelation."

"Thank you, Dr. Frasier. What do you suggest we do?"  
"Right now, I think we should wait for him to come to, then go from there."  
"Very well, dismissed."  
They left the briefing room. Jack and Leeson went back to the locker to change into his civvies. Before leaving, Jack went to the infirmary to check on Daniel. He hadn't known him for very long, but the man had saved his life, in his mind that made him a friend.

Walking into the infirmary, Jack looked around but didn't see Daniel. The beds were empty. There were two other teams back from missions, fairing pretty well, all they had needed were routine exams. After looking around, he found Dr. Frasier

"Where's Daniel?"  
"I put him in a private room. When he comes around it will be better for him. All of the noise and people in the infirmary will only scare him."  
"Can I go sit with him?"  
Frasier was about to say no, then she figured it couldn't hurt. She nodded her approval. Thanking her Jack went into the private room at the other end of the infirmary. Daniel was still unconscious from the sedative they had given him earlier. Not knowing what else to do, he took a seat next to the bed.

After over an hour one of the nurses told him that visiting hours were over. He got up to leave then looked at the man in the bed. For some reason he couldn't leave. Looking at the man lying in the man, something inside of him made him sit back down. He sat back in the world's most uncomfortable hospital chair and settled in for the night.

The next morning Jack woke with a jolt. Teal'c was standing over him.

" T, you can't do that."  
"To what are you referring to, O'Neill?"

"Standing over people while they sleep, its creepy."

Teal'c raised his eyebrow in question. Teal'c had joined the team a few missions after the original expedition. He left the service of a reigning Goa'ould to join in what soon became an all out battle. With the cartouche they had brought back from the original expedition, they had the addresses of other planets. They had only visited Abdyos again on a whim, to see if they had missed anything. Teal'c was off world checking on his wife and son, or he would of gone on this mission with him.

"How long has he been unresponsive?"  
"For about three days now. Doc says it might be a while before he comes out of it."  
Unaware of what was going on around him Daniel continued to stare at nothing. Lost in a world inside his mind.

"He seems to be deeply troubled, what has occurred to put him in a state such as this?"

Knowing Teal'c, Jack didn't feel like it was prying to tell him what had happened.

"Someone he trusted took advantage of him."

Teal'c's expression changed to one of question.

" How was this able to happen? Surely a man with the intelligence I have heard people claim of Dr. Jackson would be able to avoid a situation such as this."

"That was probably true when we left him, but he had an accident, fell off of a horse or something, and well, he suffered some brain damage, from what I understand, he's a lot like a kid now. From what we were told Daniel thought the guy was his friend."  
Teal'c's expression changed to one of anger.

"Someone who would take advantage of such a person is a most unsavory character, what became of this man?"

"He and a bunch of his friends were executed the day before our team got there. They were caught in the act of raping Daniel, which is what put him in this state."

"Then they have met an acceptable fate."  
"Can't disagree with you there."

"If you require rest I will sit with Dr. Jackson until you return O'Neill. "  
"Thanks Teal'c, you can't really get any sleep in these chairs. I'll see you later."  
Teal'c nodded and O'Neill left for his quarters on base.

Two weeks in the infirmary and Daniel was still the same. Between paper work and the occasional mission, Jack still found the time to sit with him. By the third week he was moving, but not talking. Going into the fourth week Daniel decided to rejoin the land of the living.

Jack was sitting next to his bed reading the sports paper. Glancing up from the paper he noticed that Daniel wasn't staring off into space anymore. Jack stood up to stretch; Daniel's eyes followed him. Smiling, Jack sat back down.  
"Welcome back, mind if I sit back down?"

Daniel slowly shook his head.

"That's good. Can you talk?"  
"Yes." His voice came out in a raspy whisper that Jack could barely hear.

Jack pushed the red button on the bed control to summon the doctor. Daniel watched him the whole time.

"Where's my sister and brother?"  
"They're still on Abdyos with your father." Jack watched Daniel's face to gauge his reaction.

Dr. Frasier came into the room. Noticing that Daniel was talking she went over to the side of his bed. She was starting to worry about him.

"Thank you for paging me colonel O'Neill. It's nice to see that you're talking, Daniel."  
"I want to go home, when can I go home."  
Frasier looked at Daniel as tears began to fill his eyes. Jack spoke up.

"Your father thought we would be able to take care of you."  
Daniel began to cry

"I want to go home. Why can't I go home?"

Jack turned to the doctor.

"Can you give us a minute?"  
"Sure, I can do my exam later."  
Jack nodded and Frasier left the two men alone.

"They sent me away."  
"Why do you say that?"  
"Father's mad at me."  
"Why would your father be mad at you, Daniel?"  
"I wasn't a very good son."  
"That's not true; when I talked to him he never said that. He let us take you because he thought we would take better care of you. He sent you hear because he loves you. It was a very hard decision."

"Okay."

Not wanting to intrude, Jack left Daniel to think about what he'd said.

The next day Jack came into the infirmary. Daniel was trying to get out of his bed.

"Whoa, what do you think you're doing?"  
"I don't feel like laying down anymore, I want to get up now."

Jack got up to help him, then second thought the actions as he saw Daniel stiffen when he went to reach for him. Deciding that they would both be in trouble if Daniel fell, he went for his first idea.

Daniel didn't make any sounds when Jack took hold of his arm, but he didn't look like he was going to calm down anytime soon either.

Now sitting up with his legs dangling over the edge of the bed, Daniel looked around the room.

"Where are my clothes?"  
"The doctor replaced them when you came here. We'll get you some new ones."  
"When?"  
"When you get out of the infirmary."  
"When is that?"

"When the doctor says you can leave."  
"Oh."  
Running out of questions, Daniel just sat on the edge of the bed and swung his legs.

Jack watched him. Everything he said and did reminded him of a kid. He couldn't believe this was the same man that had opened the stargate almost 2 years ago. When he ad first met him, Jack had noticed an air of guileless innocence behind the academic exterior to the man. It had appealed to his protective side, the instincts left over from when he'd been a dad. Now he felt even more strongly, and remembering what those men had did to Daniel made him wish they were still alive. He wanted to kill them with his own hands.

Coming into the room, Frasier looked at Daniel. He was sitting up and talking. Which was a good thing, after four weeks of silence he needed to.

"Hello Daniel, I'm Dr. Frasier. I just want to give you a check up, see if you're healed, then you and the colonel can finish talking, okay?"

"Can Jack stay?"

Frasier looked at the colonel, he shrugged at the doctor.

"If that's what you want." Frasier walked to the door and closed it.

"Right now I just want to look at your wrist and ankles."  
Daniel held out his hands. The doctor smiled and held them in her hands. She noticed how he flinched when she first touched him. She knew it was more of a psychological response, after what had happened, she would have been floored if he didn't react to being touched.

After going over the cursory injuries she moved on to the more personal injuries.

"Daniel. I'm gonna need you to take off your pants. I'm not going to hurt you, I just need to finish the exam, and then we'll be all done. Okay."  
Daniel nodded. Daniel awkwardly got out of his hospital scrub pants.

"We'll be done in a minute. Just lay on your back. Stay calm."  
"Jack!"  
"Yeah, I'm right here."

"Can you hold my hand?"

"Sure." Jack took Daniel's hand in his while dr. Frasier started the exam. He squeezed jack's hand when Frasier touched him. She was glad to see that the bruising and bite marks were healing at a normal rate. Finished with that part of the exam, she put on a new set of gloves.

"We're almost done, Daniel. I just need you to turn onto your stomach, then we'll be all done."  
Daniel rolled over. She gave him a pillow to lay on so the exam would be easier.

Daniel squeezed Jack's hand so hard he thought it would break.

The tears were healed; the stitches had taken care of that. All he needed now was ointment, after applying that she disposed of her gloves and patted his shoulder.

"All done?"  
She smiled at the question. "Yep, all done, you can put your pants back on now."  
Sitting up he pulled them on as quickly as he could. He didn't want anyone to touch him, not after having to just sit through that exam.

"The colonel and I are going to go talk for a minute, then he can come sit with you again okay?"  
Daniel nodded and laid his head on his knees. The doctor and Jack left the room to go talk in her office.

Taking a seat in front of her desk, Jack waited for her to come in and sit down.

"He's seems to have taken a liking to you, Jack."  
"I noticed. Is this why you wanted to talk to me?"

"Some of it. I want to keep him overnight. Make sure everything is okay, tomorrow I want to release him from the infirmary."  
"If you were going to ask if I'll take him don't bother."  
Frasier looked shocked. She wasn't expecting that kind of answer.

"Well, I thought that you'd…"

"I already asked Hammond, he said it was okay as long as you agreed."  
"That's not all I wanted to talk to you about."  
"Of course not. I wasn't expecting to get away that easily."  
"You know what happened to him. And from the exam I did I can tell you, it was bad. Since he seems to trust you I was hoping you'd be able to get him to talk."  
"This isn't going to be easy is it?"  
"No, it isn't. Are you sure you want to do this?"  
"Yeah, staying here on base isn't going to do him any good. The general offered me two weeks leave time, until we can find him a permanent family."  
Janet nodded at him. She had a feeling that Jack would decide to keep Daniel. For some reason, they had this unmistakable bond, even though they barely knew each other, it was hard to miss.

"What if they can't find one in that time?"  
"He can come to work with me. It's not like he wouldn't be safe here. He'll be safer than he was on Abdyos. It's a military base."  
"That doesn't mean it can't happen. Kasuf made that mistake already; you owe it to him not to do that. You know as well as I do that just because this is a military base doesn't mean they're aren't people that won't take advantage of someone."

On that note, Janet ended their meeting. They left her office.

"Hey Daniel, if everything turns out good, you get to leave tomorrow."  
"Does that mean I can wear clothes now. I want clothes like Jack's. Can I have clothes like Jack's?"

"I don't think that will be to hard."

"Can I have them now, I want to wear them now."  
"Listen to the doctor, Danny, she said you can wear them tomorrow when you get out of here."  
"Okay. Where am I going?"

"Jack said that you can stay with him for now."  
Daniel gave them his biggest smile.

"But only if I say you're good to go. If everything is good, you can leave in the morning."

Nodding his head Daniel looked at Jack and smiled.

Not being able to resist, Jack smiled back.

"I have to go back to work, I'll be here to pick you up in the morning."  
"Okay Jack. Bye."  
Sighing, Jack left the infirmary to go shuffle through the stack of papers in his office.

Watching Jack leave, Daniel got off his bed.

"Daniel, where are you going?"

"Bathroom."  
"Okay."

Janet and her nurses had removed the catheter after he woke up the other day. After spending 30 minutes telling him they weren't going to hurt him. Sighing to herself, she realized Jack was going to have his hands full.

Dressed in a blue jumpsuit and sneakers, Daniel sat waiting for Jack to come get him. Not wanting him to wander off, Janet gave him a book she'd bought for him. She was sure he was spending more time looking at the pictures than he was reading the words.

_At least he's where I can see him_.

She thought to herself. Nothing could happen to him if he stayed where she could keep an eye on him. Her night staff told her that he'd had a nightmare the night before. He woke up screaming and crying. They said that he didn't go back to sleep until three o'clock in the morning.

Watching him in his room looking at the book she'd brought him and making pictures, you'd never know that anything bad had just happened to him. You couldn't tell by looking at him. He was perfectly content sitting on the bed waiting for Jack to pick him up.

Jack came walking into the infirmary just then dressed in his civvies. Knocking on Janet's door, he let himself in when she didn't object.

"Is he ready to go?"  
"Yeah. He's pretty excited. I don't think he wants to spend anymore time here than he has to. Sit down, I want to talk to you before you leave."  
"What about?"  
"Are you sure you're up to this?"  
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"  
"I just want to be sure, once you take him home, that's it. It wouldn't be fair for you to change your mind after this. It would do a lot more harm than good. If you aren't up to this, now's the time to say so."  
Jack looked at Janet. He looked at her real hard.

"How bad was it?"  
"He didn't go back to sleep for over an hour. The staff couldn't get near him without him bursting into tears. He fell asleep in the corner of his room."  
"I wouldn't do this if I didn't know what I was getting into. He can't stay here in the infirmary forever. The only other place for him would be mental health. That isn't going to do him any good. He'll wind up screwed up for sure."  
"Just making sure you weren't going to back out of this."

"You know me better than that. I wouldn't do this without knowing what I'm getting into."

"Well, he's ready to go. Just remember to bring him back day in a few days so I can do a follow up."  
"No problem. See you in a few days."  
Jack left Frasier's office and went to collect Daniel from his private room.

"Knock knock. Are we ready to leave yet?"  
Looking up from his book, Daniel smiled at Jack.

"Hi. Look what Janet gave me. It's a book about different myths and stuff. It has a whole bunch of different stories in it."

"Sounds cool. You ready to get out of here."  
"Really, I can leave?"  
"That's what I said. Come on, I'm sure you're tired of looking at these walls."  
Gathering up his book, Daniel followed Jack. They took the elevator and went through the on base checkpoints to leave the complex. Reaching the surface, they left the base and reached the parking lot.

Daniel asked questions the whole time. Jack gave out more than a few death glares when the guards stared at Daniel for asking somewhat obvious questions. When they reached the parking lot Jack unlocked the car and let Daniel into the truck. Getting into his side, he locked the car and started the car.

"Do want anything to eat?"  
"Yeah, can we get something to eat? I'm hungry."  
"Sure, we can grab something on the way back home, we can stop by the store and get a movie."  
"Okay."  
"What kind of food did you want?"

" I don't know. I never had to pick what to eat, father or someone else always did that before I got home."

Glancing over, jack looked at Daniel. He was staring out the window.

"You miss them a lot, don't you?"  
"Yeah, I don't remember my earth family. Father, brother and sister are the only family I can remember. I don't remember a lot of things from here. But I like it anyway"  
"That's good. We're here. Come on, let's go pick a movie."

They got out of the car and went into the store. Making sure he could still see Daniel, Jack went to look at what was on the wall. He picked up a couple and read the back. Thinking that one sounded good, he put the rest back. Looking up from the box he turned to see if Daniel was still there. He wasn't. Jack turned in a circle, then walked down an aisle.

"Daniel."  
He called. Going down the next aisle, he didn't see him. Now he was feeling a little frantic. He walked around the nearby aisle, then decided to try the other end of the store.

"Daniel!"  
Still not getting an answer, he was about ready to call the base when he spotted him

"Daniel!"

"Huh?"

Daniel was standing the middle of the aisle with another guy. The guy had his around Daniel, and it was easy to tell that he liked it a lot more than Daniel. Looking up when he heard his name, he smiled.

"Who the hell are you?"  
The man holding Daniel smiled and stuck out his hand.

"Hello, you must be Jack, I was just talking to Daniel, he seemed to be lost."  
"I noticed that, you didn't answer my question."

Jack smiled back. He didn't like the man. His skin crawled when he shook his hand.

"Raymond Shaw, but you can call me Ray."  
"Well, Ray, can you let go of Daniel, I'm pretty sure he's not having as good a time as you are."  
His smile wavering a little, he took his arm from around Daniel.

"Well, it was nice to meet you Ray. Come on Daniel, it's time to leave."  
"Okay, bye Ray." Daniel said to the man.  
Still smiling, the man looked at Daniel and waved to him.

"Bye Daniel." He watched them leave; wishing he'd had more time to talk to Daniel.

_Better luck next time. _ He put the deck of trading cards they'd been looking at, and finished stocking the shelves.

Deciding he was finished with movies, and making sure Daniel was following him this time, Jack headed for the checkout counter. Throwing the movies onto the conveyor belt, he pulled out his wallet to pay for the movies.

Daniel stood off to the side, not wanting to get in Jack's way. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he waited for Jack to finish.

"Come on Daniel, let's go get in the car."  
Leaving the store they both got into the car.

"You're mad at me, aren't you?"

Sighing, Jack put his head on the steering wheel.

"No, I'm not mad at you. You scared me. You can't go running off like that."  
"I just wanted to look around, then I got lost. Ray said he was going to help me. He was nice."  
"Daniel, not everyone's your friend, you have to be more careful."  
"But he didn't do anything."  
"I could see how uncomfortable you were when was holding you. Didn't you tell him?"  
"No. Can we go now? I'm hungry."  
"Don't try to change the subject."  
Shrugging, Daniel looked out the window.

"I'm hungry."  
"We're gonna finish this eventually."

Jack started the car, and they left the parking lot. He ordered dinner on his cell phone, so it would be on its way when they got back to his house.

Pulling into the driveway, he turned off the ignition and got out of the car.

"Come on, dinner will be here in a few minutes."  
They got out of the car and went into the house. Looking around, Daniel stood in the front entryway.

"The living room's that way, you can go sit down."

He went into the living room and sat down on the couch. Looking around the room he saw a picture of a little boy with brown hair and blue eyes.

"Who's this?"  
Coming into the room with two cups, he set one in front of Daniel and drank the other one.

"That's my son, Charlie, he died a few years ago."  
"I'm sorry."  
"It's okay, you were just asking. You don't have to apologize."

They sat in silence for a minute, neither one knowing what to say. There was a knock on the door.  
"That's dinner. I hope you like pizza."  
Going to the front door, Jack paid for the pizzas. After sitting them on the coffee table,

He went into the kitchen for plates and napkins.

"All right, I'm gonna put on a movie. Go ahead and help yourself."  
Putting two slices on his plate, he watched Jack put a DVD.

"What are we watching?"  
"The Mummy, I figured you'd like it."  
"Cool."

With the movie on, the two sat in silence. The movie played for a while before either one talked.

"He reminds me a lot of father."  
"Who?"  
"That guy."  
""You mean the old librarian guy?"  
"Yeah. He looks like father. And he cares about that lady even though he's not her father."

"You mean like how Kasuf took care of you?"  
"Yeah, I miss them?"  
"Don't worry; they know how much you love them. Families are pretty good at things like that."  
"I know."  
"Did you have any friends on Abdyos?"  
"Yeah. He used to tell stories. He told stories about his family and the village and a whole bunch of things."

"Did you have fun with him?"  
"Sometimes. Sometimes he told stories or showed me how to make things."  
"What about when you weren't having fun, what did you do?"

"I don't want to talk about that."

Looking at Daniel, Jack could see that he wasn't very comfortable talking about what happen. He was fidgeting in his seat and he wasn't looking at Jack anymore. Jack decided that he didn't want to push him anymore, so he turned the movie back on.

"Okay, you don't have to talk about that right now if you don't want to. Okay?"  
Still looking at the floor, Daniel nodded his head.

"Come on, lets finish the movie, it was getting good."

They sat together on the couch and finished watching the movie.

After it was done, Jack saw that Daniel too tired to sit through another one.

He'd set the guest room up the day before. The bed was already made and he remembered to put towels on the dresser.

"Come on, I made the guest room up, you can sleep in there."

"I'm not sleepy. I want to watch the other movie."  
Jack chuckled to himself. Stretching and yawning, Daniel looked like an overgrown kid. It really was hard to forget that he was an adult.

"Danny, you're falling asleep, the movies will be here tomorrow when you wake up."

"But I'm not ready to go to bed, Jack."  
"You're yawning, come on." Grabbing his hand, Jack led Daniel into the guest bedroom. He stripped back the covers and sat Daniel on the bed.

"Here you go. I left you a pair of boxers and T-shirt for you to wear to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay. Night Jack." Daniel was lying down and sleep before Jack even left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

PART 2

The warmth of sleep engulfed Jack's mind and body. Taking care of Daniel for the last two weeks was taking its toll. The house was locked up, his kitchen was clean, and better yet, Daniel was sleep. After eating dinner and showing him how to play poker, the kid was finally asleep. And Jack was going to enjoy it while he could.

In the guest room, Daniel wasn't sleeping as well. Tossing and turning in his sleep, Daniel tried to push away invisible hands, hands that were touching him where he didn't want to be touched. Hands and a voice that coaxed him out of his clothes. Tears streamed down his face as he cried. Pushing away from the nightmare man, Daniel cried out. "Stop it. Please, I don't like it. Please don't, I don't want you to."

Jack was jolted awake by Daniel's cries. Leaving the peaceful curtain of sleep, he sat up and wiped his face. Easing himself off of bed, he padded his way down the hall. He'd left the door to Daniel's room open for just this reason. Daniel sobbed in his sleep. Continuing his cries to be left alone, they could be heard down the hall. Suddenly, without warning a blood-curdling scream ripped through the hallway.

"IT HURTS, IT HURTS. STOP IT, IT HURTS."

Making it to his room, Jack went to Daniel's side. The sheets were rumpled and pushed to one corner of the bed. With the hall light coming in through the door, he could see that was covered in sweat. Not wanting to touch the other man and scare him even more, Jack tried speaking to him. "Daniel, wake up, you're safe."

Not hearing his friend, Daniel continued to struggle in the throes of his nightmare. "Please. It hurts. Stop. It hurts…."

Not being able to take the nightmarish pleas for mercy, Jack shook Daniel awake. "Wake up Daniel." As soon as he felt the hand on his shoulder, Daniel jerked into wakefulness.

Scrambling to the other end of the bed, he scrunched himself into a ball, protecting himself as best as he could. Still caught halfway between the sleeping and waking worlds, Daniel couldn't see Jack. All he could see were his attackers coming for him, hurting him again. He didn't want to be hurt again.

At the other end of the bed, Jack watched Daniel. He watched as his body trembled from fear and the after affects of his nightmare.

"Hey, come on Daniel. It's me, Jack. You're at my house, safe and sound. It's just a bad dream." Jack watched as Daniel began to fully wake up. His body stopped shaking and he began to uncurl himself. The attackers he saw in his dreams began to fade away; soon the only person he saw was Jack's concerned face staring at him from the other side of the bed.

"Jack?" the word came out as a barely whispered plea, a request for it all to be a dream.

"The one and only. I'm gonna move closer to you, okay?"

Nodding mutely, Daniel watched as Jack took a seat next to him on the bed.

Sitting next to him, Jack could feel the shivers that were traveling through Daniel's body.

After what felt like forever Daniel finally calm down. His body stopped quacking, and he uncurled himself from his knot. Sitting with his head resting on hi knees, he stared at Jack.

"I had a bad dream."  
"I know."  
"I'm sorry."  
"for what."  
"waking you up, I'm sorry."  
sighing and stretching, Jack turned his head so he could look at Daniel.

"Danny, you don't have to be sorry for having nightmares. Something really terrible happened to you. No one's going to be mad with you, least of all me."

"so you're not mad that I woke you up?"  
"no, I'm not mad at you. But I will be if you don't change out of those sweat soaked clothes."  
looking down at himself, Daniel noticed that the front of shirt was covered in sweat, and he could feel the dampness on his back now that he was more aware.

Handing Daniel the shirts and shirt he'd given him earlier, he stood up.  
"here, I'll come back in when you're done." Leaving the room, he closed the door so Daniel could have his privacy. Standing in front of the door he wondered if he was really up for this. _Maybe Daniel would be better off at mental health. _Then he remembered when his brother had been sent to an institution. Liam was never the same after he'd come home. He never talked to anyone, he left for long periods of time. Jack had only been 11 at the time, so their parents never told him why, and he never asked. Remembering all of this, the distant and mistrust he had in his parents, made him realize that he could do that do Daniel. Leave him with total strangers when he had no one else to take care of him. for some reason, he felt an urge to protect the man, with the same fire that he would have with Charlie. Thinking to himself, he realized that Charlie would have looked a lot like Daniel if he'd grown up. The two of them would have gotten along well, even with Daniel in his current state.

Shaking himself out of his current state, Jack realized he'd been standing there for a while, and Daniel was quiet.

"Hey, are you done in there?"  
"Yeah."  
Opening the door he saw that Daniel had put on the clothes he'd left him earlier. Right away he noticed that he was broader than Daniel. His shirt hung on him, and if it hadn't been for the elastic in the boxers, they would have fallen off of him. Jack couldn't help but think that Daniel looked like a kid wearing his brother's hand-me-downs.

"well, I'm going to hazard a guess and say that u aren't sleepy anymore."  
Daniel shook his head. "Well how about something to eat, how's that sound?"  
"Okay."  
"Well good. I'll make us both a sandwich."

Daniel followed Jack into the kitchen and took a seat at the counter.

Jack got the bread from out of the cabinet. Putting it onto the counter in he went to the fridge. Watching Daniel he saw the he was busying himself making designs on the counter with his fingers. Grabbing the rest of the ingredients out of the fridge he started making the sandwiches.

"Jack?"

he looked up at Daniel, who still had his head down staring the designs he was making.

"why do people like hurting others?"  
"I don't know. Some do it because they feel better about themselves when they do. They think that if they can hurt other, then they cant be hurt themselves. Why do you ask?  
shrugging his shoulders, he went back to being silent.

"is it because of the bad dream you had?"

again, Daniel just shrugged his shoulders and went back to drawing.

"If someone hurt you Daniel, you can tell me."  
"I cant."

"Why not?"  
"It's a secret."  
"Secrets that hurt people aren't the kind that you keep."  
"But I promised not to say anything, no matter what. That's why friends tell each other secrets."

"Daniel, a friend wouldn't make you keep a secret about someone hurting you."  
"But I promised."

"Daniel, I promise you that nothing will happen if you tell me. Whatever it is, if it's making you have nightmares, it isn't anything good."

Looking up from the counter, Daniel looked Jack in the face, but not the eye. All he saw in there was trust and understanding. No anger or judgment. Nothing that would make him think Jack was lying to him.

"Hassan was my friend."

Finishing the sandwiches, he grabbed two drinks from the fridge and placed everything on the coffee table in the living room. He took a seat next to Daniel.

"I know."

"I like him. He was nice to me. He talked to me when everyone else told me I was in the way."  
"I'm sorry people were like that."  
"He said that they just didn't want me to get hurt."

Nodding, Jack listened while Daniel continued.  
"Sometime we had fun. At first we always had fun. Then everything changed."  
"What happen?"

"I just wanted to be his friend."

Daniel's voice became quiet, and hard to hear. Jack had to strain to hear him.

Knowing that he wasn't going to come right out and say it, he decided to take a more direct line of questioning. As softly and with as much care and emotion as he could put into it, he prodded Daniel.  
"Did he touch you, Daniel?"  
Trying hard not to cry, but failing miserably. He nodded.

"I didn't want him to, he made me promise not to say anything. I didn't like it, but he said that I did, and if I told anyone they wouldn't believe me anyway."  
"It's not your fault. He used you."

"But he said I liked it. He said that if I didn't like it I wouldn't of got hard, so that means I liked it."

Finally realizing why Daniel felt so guilty, Jack wished that Hassan were still alive; he wanted to kill him slowly.

"Daniel, look at me."

Not being able to meet jacks eye, he stared at the spot over his shoulder.

"It's not your fault. You can't help that; it's just something your body does. If you didn't think you liked it, then you didn't."

Looking at Daniel and knowing that he didn't believe anything he'd said, he lifted Daniel's chin gently with a caring hand.

"Daniel, you couldn't help what happened. Hassan used you. The only person who needs to be blamed is Hassan."

Looking into Jack's eyes, Daniel saw that he wasn't lying to him. Jack really believed what he was saying.

By this time, Daniel was openly sobbing, he'd given up trying not to cry early on in the conversation. Disregarding his food, Jack took the other man in his arms and led him to the couch. Rocking Daniel while he sobbed, Jack comforted the best way that he could.

"I hated it. I asked him to stop over and over. I told him I didn't want to, but he did it anyway. He wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop. I told him it hurt and he wouldn't stop."

Rocking him, Jack tried to provide him with as much as he could.

"Shhhh, I know, I know. It's over now and you're safe. You'll never see him again."  
They sat that way for a long time. Daniel sobbing and Jack soothing him as best as he could. After a while Daniel quieted and fell asleep as jack watched the sun come up.

Jack was jerked out of his sleep by the ringing phone. He wondered who would have the nerve to call him on a Saturday, then he remembered that Frasier and company would want to check on his newest ward. Extracting his sleeping leg from under Daniel's head, he went and picked up the phone.

"Yeah?"

"Colonel? It's Frasier, how's Daniel doing?"

"Ok. He had a nightmare last night. Nasty business. He's sleeping right now. He stayed up all night after it crying. And it's Jack, I'm on downtime, remember?"

"Well, _colonel_, I'm still on duty. I told you it wouldn't be easy. Just remember that I need you to bring him in tomorrow."

"I just brought him in a while ago. I thought we were going to give him time to get used to a normal life"

"It's been over two weeks."  
"Really? I'll bring him in tomorrow. Have you found a family for him?"

"No, not yet."

"I know. I'm just trying to think of Daniel. I mean how am I going to explain to him that he has to go away when we do find him a family. I don't think I can put him through that. He's already gotten pretty attached to me."  
"Don't you mean you've gotten attached to him?"

"So what if I do? All I'm saying is that once he gets settled, I don't want to move him. He needs a stable life. It's not like he can take care of himself. We both know how obvious that is."  
"What are you trying to say, Jack?"  
"I'm saying that I've decided to keep him. I'll have the general draw up the papers when we come in tomorrow."  
"I hope you know what your doing. If you suddenly decide that you don't want to do this anymore, it wont be fare to either of you especially to Daniel."

"I know what I'm doing. And no, I'm not going to change my mind later. He needs this. I know he does. He trusts me now. I can't break that trust by sending him to live with strangers. He isn't going to respond to them the way he responds to me."

"You're probably right. He does trust you. I don't know why, but he does. You were the only one that could get anywhere near him without making him scream while he was here on base."

Hearing Daniel stir in the living room, Jack deciding to cut their conversation short.

"I gotta go, we'll see you in the morning. Daniel's up."  
"Okay, see you tomorrow colonel."

"Bye, Doc."  
Jack hung up the phone and went back into the living room. On the couch, Daniel was stretching into wakefulness. He stretched his and arched his body like a cat. Jack smiled to himself as he ruffled Daniel's hair.

"Glad to see you're awake. Come on, we're going out today."  
"What for?"

"Well, you need clothes, you can't keep wearing my stuff, it's to big. And, you need a haircut, your hair's a little on the long side. I also need to get you a new pair of glasses. All that squinting has got to be giving you a headache."

(Daniel's hair was falling just past his shoulders, and as cute as it may look, it's not in style anymore)

"So, come on, you need to get in the shower and scrub down, then we can leave for our day of fun."

Jack wasn't a big fan of the mall. There were too many squealing teens with money and women looking for a deal for his taste.

Daniel wasn't fairing any better. There were far to many people there for his liking. He stuck as close as he could to Jack without jumping into Jack's arms. But he couldn't help being a little curious. The shops they passed had so many things in the window. Video game systems, books, board games. Movies. After a while his curiosity won over his fear and he let go of Jack to look into some of the windows.

Jack was okay with this, as long as Daniel didn't venture too far from where he could see him. He kept an eye on him and nudged him when it was time to go to the next store.

"Here we go. Lets get you some threads my friend."  
Jack led Daniel into the Old Navy clothing store. He grabbed the first teenage employee he could find.  
"Excuse me, could you help me out."  
The girl he'd snagged came over to him.

"What can I do for you sir?"

"My cousin here needs a wardrobe, and I want some help picking it out. I don't want him walking around looking like an idiot."

Looking from Jack to Daniel, the store attended eyed the younger man.

"Don't worry, I'll help you guys out. Where did you want to start first?"

The girl, whose name they found out was Katie, was nice. She handed Daniel all of his clothes and showed him where the changing room was. Daniel went in, while Jack and Katie waited outside for him.

"He's a really sweet man."  
"Yeah, I know."

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Shoot?"

"Has he always been this way?"

Sighing and rubbing his face he let out a huge breathe.

"No, he wasn't. In fact he was- is- a genius. He knows god knows how many languages and he has three PhD's."

"How old is he? Aren't most people who get those in their 30's?"

"He's 25, and yeah, most people are well into their 30's when they earn them. He started college when he was still a teenager."

"Wow, cute and smart. He would of been a real catch, so what happen?"  
"He fell off a horse while he was studying out of the country. Got sick while he was recovering. The infection combined with the injury left him like this."

Jack stayed as close to the truth as he could. It was easier for that way.

"Well it's a good thing he had someone like you there to take care of him."  
_To bad I got there too late. Not before he was hurt. _ Jack thought to himself.

"Yeah, I guess."  
Daniel came out if the dressing room wearing a pair of tan pants and a blue sweater.

"Does this look okay?"

Smiling at Daniel, Katie nodded.

"It's cute. The sweater makes your eyes stand out."  
"Go try on the rest of the stuff so we can see it. I still need to buy you some shoes and you need a haircut."

By the end of their time in the mall, Daniel had eight pairs of pants, three pairs of shorts, and an assortment of shirts in colors Jack had never heard of. He also had two pairs of sneakers, a pair of dress shoes, and a new haircut. The stylist had decided to leave it long, but it was still shorter than before. The stylist had taking it to just above his collar. She said that the style went well with the glasses they'd had picked out earlier.

"Come on. Lets get out of here before I realize how much money I no longer have."  
Navigating through the sea of people, they made it out to the car. Seeing how dark it was, Jack looked at his watch and realize it was late.

"Whoa, geeze it's almost 8:30. Time for dinner. What do you feel like eating, Daniel?"  
Turning around, Jack noticed that Daniel wasn't there anymore.

"Daniel?" jack turned around in a circle.

"Daniel!"

Going back in the mall, he called his name again. The crowd that had been there when they'd come earlier in the day was gone. A group of kids waiting for a movie and a few people here and there, but no Daniel. After looking and for what seemed like forever and not finding him, he decided that Daniel hadn't just wandered off this time, someone had taken him. Which meant that he was going to need a lot more effort than wandering around the mall yelling his name.

Taking out his cell phone, he called the base.

"This is O'Neill, put me through to Hammond, it's urgent."

"I'm sorry sir, he's in a meeting right now with…"  
"I don't care if he's meeting with the pope, I SAID IT WAS URGENT, AS IN LIFE OR DEATH, now would you please go get him OR SO HELP ME GOD…"  
the airman put him on hold, and seconds later, Hammond was on the other end.

"Colonel, there had better be a good reason you had me dragged out of a diplomatic meeting."  
"Daniel's been taken, sir."

The MP's had descended upon the mall in a frenzy. They had scoured the mall. After hours of searching they'd found Daniel's glasses, and a syringe that they took back to the base for Frasier. Other than that, they hadn't found anything else.

While all of this was going on, Jack was talking to the rest of SG-1.

Or rather, the rest of SG-1 was trying to calm him down.

"I can't believe I let this happen. My guard shouldn't have been down!"

"Sir, you need to calm down. This isn't going to help."  
"Major Carter is right, O'Neill. You are of no use to the search in your current state. You are not all knowing. The persons who abducted Daniel Jackson were most likely very skilled at what they were doing. We must now focus our energies on finding him before they do him harm."

"You're right, T. we need to find Daniel."

Daniel woke with a headache. A REALLY big headache. His glasses were gone, so he couldn't see very well. But it didn't really matter, because the room he was in was dimly lighted, and sparse.

"Well, well, well, look who's up?"  
Daniel scrambled into a corner of the room. Bringing his bound hands in front of him to protect his face.

"W-w-where's Jack?"  
The man stood up and left.

In the other room, his partners were waiting for him.

"He's up."

Jack was sitting in his office, staring at the surface of his desk. Daniel had been missing for over 18 hours. With every passing minute, Jack began to think that there was no hope of finding Daniel. The MP's hap spent hours at the mall, without any luck. The only thing they could do was wait until they got another lead. Jack was beginning to fall asleep, when his phone suddenly began to ring.

"O'Neill."  
"Hello, Jack. How are you doing these days?"  
"Who the hell is this?"  
"That's no way to speak to a friend. I'm hurt that you don't remember me."  
"I'm going to ask you again. Who are you and how the hell did you get this number?"

"I thought that you'd remember me, I mean, I did save your life."  
Milling over his memories, Jack was finally able to put the voice to a face.

"Shaver, Lt. Shaver. You're supposed to be in prison."  
"Yeah, well the NID thought I was more useful here on the outside. They're pretty pissed with you and Hammond. You forgot to tell them about our friend Daniel returning to the land of the living."

"What have you done to him!"

Shaver answered the other man as he answered Jack's question.

"He's alive. If you want him to stay that way, you'll listen to what I have to say. I'll be calling back in the next hour."

"You son-of-a …."

The phone was hung up before Jack could finish his sentence. Slamming down the receiver, Jack ran to the general's office. Airmen seeing the look on his face dodged out of the way.

He made it to the general's office in record time and barged in without knocking.

"Colonel O'Neill, you'd better have a damn good reason for your behavior."  
"Sir, I know who has Daniel."  
Storing his reprimand for later, Hammond addressed his 2IC.

"How do you know this?"  
"I received a call not to long ago on my office phone. The NID has him, General."  
Hammond nodded. That was what he was expecting to hear. They were the only people on earth who would benefit in any way from taking the young man.

"Don't worry colonel, we will do everything in our power to get Daniel back."  
"That's not what I'm worried about general. I know that we will get him back. It's what might happen in between that time that has me worried."

"What do you mean?"

Taking a seat in the chair in front of Hammond's desk, he settled in to tell his story.

"Apparently I've pissed the NID off one too many times. They hired an old acquaintance of mine's to kidnap Daniel. A Lt. Merritt Shaver. He was under my command once. Back when I was in Iraq. He was a decent enough soldier. Had a major problem with orders though. As far as I know, he's been in prison since."

"What was he in prison for? I mean it can't be all that serious if the NID wants him."  
"He went in for assault. He assaulted his ex's new boyfriend after the guy wouldn't back down. Before he kicked the guy's ass he'd threatened him. Called his house, left all sorts of messages. Your basic psycho stalker."

Hammond had a frown on his face. A man like this sounded like he would be willing to take advantage of someone in Daniel's position. Looking at his subordinate sitting across from him he saw that Jack knew what he was thinking.

Daniel had already been through hell once. God forbid it happen again. Hammond didn't think he'd forgive himself if he didn't try his damndest. And he was sure Jack wouldn't.

"That still doesn't explain why the NID wanted him."  
"He was a special ops with me. I trained him myself, he was one of the best damn men I had until he stopped following orders. When he was on trial I testified that he was insubordinate and prone to anger."

"So you think this is personal?"  
"I know it is. He never hurts people directly. He just hurts the people they care about."

Daniel fought to stay awake. He wanted to know where he was, and where was Jack. He also had to go to the bathroom. One thing he wasn't going to do was pee on his self. That would be embarrassing. He was too scared to yell out. The men looked mean, he didn't want to be hurt. So he sat still for as long as he could, and concentrated on holding it in.

"I see that you're still awake."

Daniel looked up to see Merritt standing over him, smiling.

"I want to go home."

Laughing at Daniel, Merritt pulled Daniel up to his feet and put a blindfold on him.

"Come on, you're getting upgraded to first class."

Daniel stumbled as he was led through various twists and turns through the building. He tripped over a step up and was hauled back to his feet. Finally making it to their destination, Merritt took Daniel's blindfold off.

The room they were in was slightly larger than the original room they had been in. there was also a bed off to one wall, and a bathroom through a door on the other side. Daniel wanted nothing more than to run to the bathroom and use it. But the other man still had his hand on Daniel's shoulder.

"See. I told you this room was better. All you have to do to stay here is listen and not give us any problems."

Merritt turned Daniel to look at him. This man wanted to hurt him, and not listening would make it so much worse.

The look on the other man's face scared Daniel so bad that he peed on himself.

Merritt looked down at the yellow stain on the hardwood floor. Daniel closed his eyes in embarrassment and cried silently.

Merritt smiled at Daniel's shame. Watching his face flush with embarrassment, he shifted as the erection in his pants grew.

"you pissed yourself. Now I'm gonna have to give you a bath."

Merritt bent down and untied Daniel's shoes, then made him step out of them.

Putting his hands on Daniel's waist, he slipped the pants and underwear off of his hips, letting his hands linger for a while. Taking a field knife, he cut the shirt off of him, so he could leave his hands bound.

When Daniel was completely naked, Merritt left Daniel standing in the middle of the room while he went into the bathroom to run water. Leaving the water on he led Daniel into the bathroom.

During all of this, Daniel was too stunned to say anything. He just let the other man tell him what to do and move him around. When Merritt reached out to wash him, Daniel snapped out of it.

"don't do that. I can wash myself."  
Smirking at the other man, he looked up from his spot on the edge of the toilet.

"no you cant. You're hands are still tied. So just shut up and don't piss me off."

Flinching away from the unwanted touch, he moved back as far as he could.

Getting angry, Merritt grabbed the other man and pinned him to the wall.

"HOLD STILL! You smell like piss. If you hadn't pissed your pants I wouldn't have to do this. So just sit still."

Not listening to the other man, Daniel continued to struggle, although it was a week on, since he had no leverage being pinned to the wall. Merritt finished washing him, then hauled him out of the bathroom, dragging him across the room and throwing him onto the bed. The anger and irritation he felt could be seen as clear as day on his face.

"you little shit! I told you to listen and this would be so much easier."

Merritt climbed onto the bed, crawl-walking toward Daniel.

Daniel backed up on the bed, the closer Merritt came to her, the farther he backed up. Daniel backed away until he hit the wall. When he hit the wall he made himself as small as he could.

Merritt grabbed Daniel and punched him. the first few blows did little damaged, since Daniel was still in a ball. When the next one hit him in the side, he uncovered his head, clutching his side, the next set of blows hit Daniel in the face and stomach. He blocked them as best as he could. Merritt kept the assault up until Daniel just laid there from exhaustion. Noticing when this happened, Merritt smiled to himself and flipped Daniel onto his back. He straddled his body while he unbuckled his pants. Pinning Daniel's hands above his head.

Daniel wasn't ready when Merritt took him, unprepared and brutally. The first blow took the air right out of his lungs, robbing him. then he screamed. His screams were screams of both mental and physical pain. Merritt's lustful grunts eventually began to drown out Daniel's quieting cries. With one final grunt and thrust, Merritt finished. he laid on top of Daniel. Breathing heavily, he kissed him on the forehead. He looked at Daniel.

"Don't worry, me and the guys will be back later to check on you."  
with that said he left the room, leaving Daniel there laying on the bed.


	3. Chapter 3

RETRIBUTION

Three days. Shaver hadn't called them in over three days. Jack was pacing the briefing room where all of the equipment had been set up. There were recording machines and a computer to trace the call. They were having all calls going to his phone forwarded to one on the table.

Jack didn't think that the trace was going to work. The NID they more than likely had the calls jammed. But there was no way to confirm that, since no one had called in three days. So far he'd yelled at two airmen and thought of shooting many others. The punching bag in the gym had taking more hits than a blackjack table in Vegas. Everyone was walking on eggshells around Jack. Even Teal'c was being cautious around him. No one knew what would set him off next.

So there he was, pacing the briefing room, and trying not to get himself yelled at. He was passing the table again for the umpteenth time when the phone rang.

Leaping toward the table, he beat the General and two sergeants to the receiver.  
"Where's Daniel?"  
"Hold it _Colonel_. You're in no position to be making demands. Last time I checked I had the upper hand in this situation."

Jack squeezed the phone and held his anger in check. The last thing he needed was to lose his temper and get Daniel killed; he'd never forgive himself if that happened.

"What do you want?" Jack said through clenched teeth.

"That's more like it. What do I want? Well I'll need some time to think about that. Mean while there is the task of obtaining what my employers want. They are very demanding people."  
Jack was getting madder by the moment. His knuckles had gone white from holding the phone so tight, and his face was turning purple from the effort to hold his tongue.

"Well, would care to share with the rest of us what it is that you would like?"  
"As of yet, they haven't informed me as to what they want me to do. But since my friends and I are having so much fun, we don't mind waiting for instructions."

"Then why are you calling me?"  
"What, you don't want to say hi to Daniel? He's been asking for you. I'm sure he would be disappointed if you didn't say hi."  
His stomach tightened. They were going to let him talk to Daniel. Thank God.  
"No! I want to talk to him, please let me talk to him. Just let me talk to him."  
Laughing on the other end, Shaver set the phone down. There was a commotion on the other end and footsteps leaving the room.

Meanwhile Jack and the others looked at each other and strained to hear what was going on. Jack's hopes were dying when suddenly the phone was picked.

"He's right here Jack. Only a shout away."  
"Put him on the phone!"  
"Hey. What did I say about making demands? You are in no position to be ordering me around. Keep it up and you wont get to talk to the retard."  
Holding his anger in check yet again, Jack remembered who he was doing this for and why.

"Please, don't do anything. Just let me talk to Daniel."

"Since you beg so well, I'll forgive you and let you talk to him."  
There was some shuffling on the other end as the phone was maneuvered and put in place.

"Hello? Daniel, Daniel?"

"Jack!" Daniel was sobbing and crying on the other end of the phone.

"I want to go home. I don't like it here." Then Daniel broke down into a sobbing fit and wouldn't let up. Jack felt his stomach hit the floor, when he got a hold of Shaver he was going to rip the man's head off.  
"Shhh. I'll get you home, don't worry, me and a whole bunch of people are working on it."

" I don't…"  
before Daniel could finish his sentence; Shaver took the phone from him.

"I think that's enough for the reunion special. You know, there was a reason that I called."  
The knot in Jack's stomach tightened. He didn't like the sound of this.

" I figured since I'm having so much fun with Daniel, my friends would like to join in. and we all decided that you would love to be a part of it and listen in."

Hearing the phone put down he listened to the voices on the other end. He could here Daniel crying and pleading, Shaver laughing and joking with other male voices.

" I'm telling you guys he's a good fuck. You'll thank me for this."  
There was a struggle, Daniel screaming and then what sounded like a punch landing.

"You little shit! Fucking retard. You're gonna wish you'd never did that."  
The sounds of the struggle stopped suddenly. Then they began to talk again.

" So who wants to go first? I can wait. How about you, Keegan, you were the one that got him to shut up, do the honors and break him in for the day."  
"Sure, I'd be happy to get this party started."

"NO! Please, no! Don't."  
There was another moment of silence, then the most gut-wrenching cry of pain went through the air. Jack dropped the phone; he'd been too stunned to do anything earlier. Running from the table he barely made it to the trashcan by the door before he lost his lunch. But it did nothing to relieve him, because the sounds of Daniel's violation could still be heard. The equipment recorded every grunt of pleasure and cry of pain that came from the other end of the line. The technicians were too shocked to do anything about the sounds coming from the end. They all just sat and listened to the horror coming through. Daniel's cries of pain and aguish soon became little more than grunts as each man took him, violating his body over and over. Finally snapping out of their daze, one of the techs plugged in a set of headphones. Unfortunately, that only served to deaden the sound, because everyone in that room knew that it did nothing to stop what was happening on the other end of that phone, and that made it worse, knowing that none of them could handle listening to it, but Daniel was being forced to go live through it.

"Do you think O'Neill enjoyed the show?"

"I'm sure he didn't enjoy it as much as our friend here did."

They had hung up the phone when they were done "entertaining" the colonel and his friends at the SGC, and put Daniel through hell all over again.

The sheets on the bed were stained red and pink. Shaver and his men were on the other side of the room now, leaving Daniel alone to cower in the corner.

"So what was it that we're supposed to be getting from O'Neill?"

Laughing at his cohorts, Shaver turned to look at the other men.

"Nothing. My bosses just want to teach him a lesson, remember who's in charge. So they had us kidnap this retard of his. I figured I'd just… expand on the curriculum."  
"So when is this all going to be over?"  
"Oh, we'll give Jack his friend back in a few days. He's probably going nuts after that phone call. We'll have some more fun, and then let them have their friend."

The other men looked nervously at each other.

"What about a trace? I mean, they are definitely tracing us. What are we going to do about that?"  
"Relax. The bosses took care of that. When they find us, we'll know."

Things back at the SGC were gloomy. Everyone that had been in the room when the call had come through was either depressed or close to it, and everyone who wasn't there found out what happened quickly. And most importantly, everyone was avoiding Jack. If anyone was taking this hard, it was Jack. Even Teal'c was avoiding him. The general trying to decide between ordering to take leave and just hoping it would cool down. People were running in the hallways to get away from Jack. One poor airman literally ran into him hours after he'd listened to the call. The man's ears were still ringing the next morning. By that afternoon it was a dull buzzing sound, and Jack had apologized to him. He was finally calm enough to eat, so he went to the commissary. Seeing the change in their team leader and friend, Sam and Teal'c joined him.

"How's the trace going?"

"Not so good. The NID hired this guy, so it's going to be hard to do."  
"Yeah, and knowing those sneaky sons-of-bitches, they'll be onto us the minute we locate them."  
"Then we must proceed with caution if we are to apprehend this degenerate."

"I've never heard you use that word before, Teal'c."  
"It was the only word I could think of in your language that was not a profanity."

"Well, excuse me if I can't abstain from using harsh language. Because when I get my hand on that good for nothing son of a bitch, I'm gonna tear his fucking guts out and feed them to him."  
"I must agree with you on this. Someone such as that should not be aloud to live. If he was on Chulak the people would have publicly beaten and killed him for his transgressions. Although it would have been a most unlikely situation."  
"Why's that?"  
"Because, one such as Daniel would not have been aloud to live. The Goa'ould would have had him killed. He would have been deemed useless and a burden to his family and god."

Rolling his eyes, Jack stared at his meal.

"I would never expect any less from the snakeheads. And I suddenly don't feel like eating anymore."

Shaver was enjoying this job. The bosses knew that Jack was at a breaking point, and that was what they wanted. They were sending someone today to check see how things were going.

Keegan and Dolard were out for the day. They were getting more supplies, and taking a much-needed break from the confines of the place they were staying.

Shaver, being the team leader, stayed behind to wait for the "evaluation", for lack of a better word.

So he was sitting in the main room, watching TV, and waiting. He didn't really mind, after all, they were the ones paying him, and it was a fun job. So he wasn't going to complain. Besides, he had a TV and DVD player, so there was nothing to complain about. He could be back in prison, with a bunch of pigheaded Nazi guards bossing him around, so he wasn't one to complain, not when everything was going in his favor.

Watching the movie that was on the screen in front of him, he let the man who had just walked into the room think that he wasn't aware of his presence. As the man approached the back of his chair, Shaver looked up, and saw the man who hired him.

"Hello Lawson, I was wondering when you'd show up."

"Shaver, I see that you have made yourself at home here."

"You don't sound like that's what you wanted."

"I just want the job I paid for done."  
Rolling his eyes Shaver pointed towards the hall

"Don't worry, I did exactly what you paid me to do. O'Neill's new pet is in the other room. He's a little worse for wear, but he's alive, like you asked."

Dismissing the other man, Lawson went into the other room. Sitting in the far corner of the room, huddled into a fetal position, was Daniel. Naked, and covered in blood, the man was shivering, and it wasn't from cold, seeing as it was over 75 degrees in the house. Looking around the rest of the room Lawson found the bed, he walked over to it seeing a blanket. Picking it up he walked over to the other man to place it over his him.

Seeing the man coming toward him, Daniel tried to cower further into the corner, but there was nowhere to go. He started to whimper and cover his head, pleading to be left alone.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you, I just wanna give you this blanket. That's it. I'm gonna give you this and then I'll leave you alone, that's all."

Placing the blanket over him, Lawson left the room, but not before he saw the bloodstains on the bed.

His blood boiling, he left the room and went back to face down Shaver.

"What the hell did you guys do? There's blood all over the place in there. The kid is scared shitless, all you were supposed to do was take him and keep him here. You fucked up, Shaver."

Getting up out of his chair Shaver stared Lawson down.

"Look, I don't care. The boss didn't say we couldn't have any fun. So back off!"

"And I'm sure he didn't say you could. You weren't supposed to lay a hand on him. He was supposed to be returned the same way he was found. But I don't care, because it's your ass."  
"What are you trying to say?"  
"I'm saying that if O'Neill comes after you, you're on your own."  
"Look, I did their dirty work, they better uphold their half of the bargain."  
"You screwed up, you take care of yourself. After this assignment is over, you better disappear before the dogs get a hold of the scent."

Lawson stormed out of the house, leaving Shaver steaming in the wake. Who the hell was he to tell him what he can and can't do? It's not like anyone is going to do anything to him for fucking the kid. If he has to sit inside for all eternity the least he should be able to do is have a decent lay for his efforts. Besides the only person who cared has no idea where he is. With the designated flunky gone, Shaver was free to sit back and enjoy his movie, which was halfway through to the end, thanks to mister Rescue the innocent Lawson. "Shit. This day just gets better and better."

Hearing the knock on the door, Kinsey waited for his assistant to come in.

"You have a call from a Mr. Lawson"  
"Put him through."  
Making sure that his assistant had cleared the room, Kinsey picked up the phone.

"How is the operation going?"

"Not good. You're not going to like this report, sir."  
Sighing to himself, Kinsey transferred the call to his secure line.

"How bad is it?"

"Bad, sir. I don't know where you found that guy, but I suggest that he be put back under whatever rock you found him."

"What's wrong?"

" We had better hope O'Neill and his cronies don't find them before you get through with whatever it is you're doing. When he finds out what Shaver did, there wont be any force known to man that will stop him from tearing the man a new one."

"What did he do?"  
"When I got there the kid was cowering in a corner, covered in bruises."

"Is that all?" Kinsey said, frowning to himself.

"No, sir." Bracing himself, Lawson went on.

"He was covered from head to foot in bruises. He was naked, and bleeding."

Closing his eyes and sitting back in his chair, he released the breath he'd been holding.

"Shit. I can't call the operation off now; O'Neill should be ready to crack. The informant I have on the inside said that he's almost desperate enough to give in."  
"When he finds Daniel the only thing he'll be desperate to do is kill."

ONE WEEK LATER

"WE FOUND HIM!"

Jack looked up from his desk to see Carter standing in his doorway.

"We got a lock on the trace. We know where there holding Daniel. The general is getting a team ready now."  
Jumping up from his desk, Jack ran to the locker room to get ready for the most important rescue mission he'd ever been on. (In his opinion)

Jack geared up and met the rest of the team, which consisted of SG teams 1, 4 and 10; the best teams on base when it came to search and rescue, and a medical team led by Frasier herself.

Meeting up with the team on the surface, Carter went over the basic plan. After coordinating with both the leader of the rescue mission and the medical team, they loaded up and headed out. Checking the safety on his pistol, he secured it back onto himself, and sat back for the ride.

Shaver was sitting in the front room, watching the playoffs, and drinking a beer. He'd been waiting for over a month to see this game, his two favorite teams going head to head. There was only 5 seconds left before the game was over, when suddenly the door burst open.

Jack and his people entered the house, Teal'c leading the team taking the rear. They entered the house and secured the front room, Jack and Sam staying to question Shaver as the rest of the rescue team checked the rest of the house. With his gun holstered, Jack took a good look at the man sitting handcuffed on the floor. He'd gained weight since the last time they'd seen each other face to face, a good ten or fifteen pounds it seemed. Other than that, he was still the same person. Same handsome face with striking features. The same scar on his right cheek, a faded white, jagged scar running from the corner of his eye to the middle of his cheek. And the same piercing, cold grey eyes. Which were fixed on Jack right now.

"Well, it looks like someone has decided to join the party. I was wondering when you and your friends would show up for the idiot."

"Shaver, if you know what's good for you, you'll shut the fuck up."  
He opened his mouth to make another comment, when he saw the look on Jack's face, and decided to shut up. The look Jack was tossing his way would scare the devil himself.

"Is the building secure?"

"Yes it is colonel. We also located Daniel, sir. We've got medical in here getting him ready to go back to the mountain."

His heart skipped a beat.

"What's wrong?"

"He's pretty bad off, sir. We had to sedate him; he wouldn't let anyone near him. There were also two other men in the room, accomplices as far as I can tell. We have them secured and ready to go. "

"Okay, you and your men take Daniel out to the medical. My team and I will take the prisoners out. Leave one or two of your men to do a sweep before we head out."  
"Yes sir."  
Hauling Shaver out of the chair the, Jack and his team took the other two prisoners off of the hands of SG 4.

Loading the prisoners into the van, Jack made sure they were secure before he went to ride back to the mountain with Daniel in the ambulance.

With Shaver and his men safely tucked away in the brig, Jack headed to the infirmary. Janet was peeling off a pair of gloves as Jack walked in. meeting her eyes, he saw the mask of professionalism slip for a second, and then she was Doctor Frasier again.

Following her into her office he closed the door and took a seat before he started his questions.

"How bad is it, Doc?"  
Taking a seat behind her desk, she looked him in the eye and went over the list of injuries.

"The worst of his injuries are two broken ribs and a bruised kidney. He has various bruises along his back, arms and legs. He also has a black eye and a concussion."  
"Is there anything else I should know?"

Bracing herself to tell him what he already knew, but didn't want to hear, she went on.

"There were signs of recent…. Sexual assault. He required stitches and we're treating him for an infection. We'll begin testing for any STD's tomorrow."

"So what are we looking at?"

"Physically, he'll recover. The infection is minimal, his kidney is being watched for complications, but it doesn't look like it'll give us any problems. Emotionally, I don't know. This is the second time, and this was far more brutal than what happen to him on Abdyos. I wont know for sure until he wakes up and I can observe him. When he's well enough, I'd like to suggest getting him a therapist."

Jack nodded, and looked out of the window. Daniel was lying on a hospital bed. The bruises stood out vividly on his too pale skin. He looked frail and broken. Lost. Jack and the team had rescued Daniel, but would he be able to save Daniel from himself?

_How am I going to fix this?_


	4. Chapter 4

11

TRUST

Daniel's bed was in the far corner of the infirmary, in a private room. Janet wanted to keep him there until he was well enough to go home again, which wouldn't be for at least a week, to make sure his ribs were mending In the mean time, Jack contented himself with visiting Daniel as much as possible. Today was Daniel's first day off of the heavy sedatives; Janet had called him 45 minutes ago to inform him of the change. She was happy she'd decided to put him in the corner of the infirmary, because the regular hustle and bustle was making him jumpy, which wasn't going to help his already fragile condition. When Jack came into the room Daniel was sitting up on his bed and staring at a book, the same one that Janet had given him the last time he'd been in the infirmary.

"Hey, Daniel."

A stiffening of his shoulders was the only acknowledgement Daniel gave that he'd heard. He continued to read his book. Or look at the pictures, since no one knew if Daniel could still read. Either way, it kept him quiet, but he still cowered from sudden sounds. It was better than the screaming fit he'd went into the first day he woke up, but not by much in Jack's opinion, but at least they didn't have to sedate him heavily anymore, just enough so that his ribs could heal.

Sitting down next to the bed in his designated chair, Jack reached out to ruffle Daniel's hair, causing Daniel to whimper and flinch away from him, hugging his book to his chest and scooting as far back as he could on the bed.

Sighing Jack pulled his hand away. Of course he should have remembered that touching was a big no. Jack was angry. Not at Daniel, but at the men, one in particular, who was the cause of the situation. Daniel had been making progress before he'd been taking, he was trusting Jack and wasn't as jumpy around people. Now it was as if all the work Jack had done never happened, they had farther to go now than they did last time.

"Hey, it's just me, Jack. You know I'd never hurt you."

Sitting on his bed, Daniel looked at Jack, and went back to hugging his book and rocking himself. Jack just decided to sit with Daniel and keep him company. Even if he couldn't accept physical comfort, Jack was sure his presence was enough for Daniel. So Jack kept his spot next to Daniel, and talked to him. He talked to him about work, and Carter's new hair cut, and Teal'cs new hobby, eating. Since the Jaffa don't consume food that actually taste good, he was very much enjoying the commissary.

"His favorite food is the chocolate cake. Wait till I get him out of this place and give him some real cake. He'll go into shock."

He told Daniel about the never-ending pile of paper work that was on his desk. (Apparently it breeds when he isn't looking.) Jack told him about who was dating whom and who was expecting and what they were hoping for. He updated Daniel on all the recent gossip going around the SGC. But most importantly, he told Daniel about his room. Since that was what the spare room was now, Daniel's room.

" I finally fixed up your room for you, Carter and Teal'c helped of course, but it was my idea. We painted it the other day, and I bought you a new bed, it should be there by tomorrow. And I hung up all of your clothes for you, when you better I'll help you pick out some cool posters and stuff to put on the wall. But you have to get better, so you can come home and see it."

Leaving the infirmary, Jack ran his hand through his hair. He'd talked to Daniel until he'd fallen asleep, his book finally set aside. He smiled to himself; Daniel had looked at him, without fear, before he closed his eyes. It was a step, a small one, but a step in the right direction. They were a far cry from the ground they been on a month ago, but they'd get there eventually, mean while, he needed to take care of Merritt and his band of degenerates. Heading towards the interrogation room, Jack prepared himself; no matter what, he would not lose control, he wouldn't give Merritt the pleasure of seeing him like that.

Former Lt. Shaver was waiting for him when he entered the room. At 6 ft. 2, he was well built and handsome. With an athlete's physique, chiseled features and grey eyes, most women would be jumping on him. To those who didn't know him, he was a charming and intelligent man. To those who saw the real him, he was a cruel and calculative. There was nothing charming or attractive about those who saw his true colors. Which was the face he was presenting to Jack and the rest of the SGC staff.

Standing outside of the room, Jack looked into the holding room. Shaver was sitting at the table waiting, a smug look on his face. Jack wanted nothing more than to go in there and wipe that look off of his face, but then there would be no one to take care of Daniel, so he decided to restrained himself. Composing himself and walking into the room, he sat down at the table across from Shaver.

"Colonel O'Neil, so nice of you to decide to join me today. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Knowing that Merritt just wanted to push his buttons, Jack ignored him and decided to get right to the point of his questioning.

"Who were you working for and what did they want?"  
"If I told you that it would ruin the surprise."  
"Who were you working for and what did they want?"

"Why should I tell you anything?"  
"Quit Fucking with me Shaver, or I swear your mouth isn't gonna save you."

"Now now, colonel, that's no way to talk to a guest. All you need to know is that my bosses are very important people who were not happy with you. Politicians can get like that when you refuse to listen."

"Why did you kidnap Daniel?"  
"That's what the bosses wanted, and they decided to get the best person for the job. I wish me and my buddies had had more time with Daniel, we were getting to know one another so well before you interrupted. Tell him I said hi."  
Unable to keep himself from striking Shaver, Jack got up and left the room, and decided to go tell Hammond what he'd learned so far, which was next to nothing.

"So he told you nothing of any use?"

"Yes sir, he pretty much danced around the questions and tried to piss me off."

"You knew what you were n for, Jack. You're the one that told me how manipulative he is."

"I know sir, it doesn't make me feel any better."  
With a weary and sad look on his face, general Hammond nodded.

"I understand. How is Daniel doing?"

"That's a difficult question to answer sir. He's awake again, but he isn't talking or looking at people, it's like I have to start all over again, he's come so far since Abdyos, now we're back at square one."

"I don't know everything, Jack, but I've seen the way you are with him, and I've seen him with you. He trusts you Jack, you're probably the only one who can bring him back."

After a week and a half in the infirmary, Daniel had finally been cleared to go home. Jack was going to pick him up from the infirmary after his day was over; Hammond said he could have a half-day when he heard. He'd bought Daniel's favorite foods for dinner. He'd remembered to pack a change of clothes for him, now all he needed was Daniel. And as soon as he finished the last stack of paperwork that was on his desk, he was going to pick Daniel up. He couldn't believe how much of the stuff there was, or how much of it was totally useless. He didn't care how many roles of toilet paper the base went through, or what color they were going to paint the commissary. Daniel was a lot more important than those things, and he was waiting for Jack to take him home. So he just singed the last few papers and hoped he didn't agree to kill off anyone needed in the near future. Collecting his things from around the office he turned off the lights and headed out of the door towards the infirmary. He stopped by his locker on the way to pick up the extra change of clothes he'd brought for Daniel, on his way out of the locker room, in a rush to get to the infirmary, he ran into Teal'c, almost falling on his ass if it wasn't for a steadying hand from Teal'c.

"Hey, T, sorry about that, in a bit of a rush here, didn't see you coming big guy."

"It is quite all right O'Neil, I see that your thought are in other places."  
"That they are."

Inclining his head, Teal'c walked with Jack as he headed towards the infirmary area.

"I have heard that Daniel Jackson was being released from the infirmary, is this true O'Neil?"  
"Yeah, you heard it right, big guy, the doc released him this morning. We're going home, Hammond is letting me work half days for the next few weeks, until I figure out some stuff."

"To what are you referring to?"  
"I have a few decisions to make. I was planning on taking this time off eventually, but with everything that's happened, it's gonna be sooner instead of later."

"Well whatever decision you come to, I will support you, O'Neil."  
"Thanks Teal'c."

Reaching the infirmary, Jack went to Janet's office, and knocked on the door. Finishing her telephone conversation, Janet looked up as Jack came into the room.

Looking up from the chart she was completing, she saw Jack standing in the doorway.

"Hey doc."

"Hello colonel."  
"I brought Daniel a change of clothes for when we leave, is there anything I need to know or do before I can take him home."  
"I'm prescribing him some pain meds, which he should take once every 6 to eight hours, whichever works for the both of you. And I'm going to give him a sedative, for sleeping, and I only want you to use that when you have to. He shouldn't be given more than 3 in a day. Other than that, you're free to take him home."

"When do I need to bring him back for a follow up?"  
"Bring him back the day after tomorrow."  
"I can do that. Thank you doc."

"Not a problem."

Leaving the office, he went to the private room that Daniel was stashed in, knocking on the door before he went in. Daniel was awake, sitting on the bed with his book in his lap.

"Hey buddy, how are you today?"  
Daniel looked up from his book and stared at Jack, never quite looking him in the eyes, but at least he was looking at him.

"Ok so I'm getting the silent treatment today. Well I've got good news; the doc says you get to go home. I brought you a change of clothes so you don't have to wear those wonderful scrubs home. I'm just gonna leave them here on this chair. I'll leave the room so you can change."

Leaving the room, Jack closed the door so Daniel could change. There were a lot to things to consider now that he was taking Daniel home again. To be honest, he didn't know if he'd be ever be able to take care of him. It was hard enough when he'd just got back from Adbyos. Jack had worked so hard the first time. This time it would be a full time effort to get him back. But he was going to worry about that later, when he had the time and a clear head. Right now, he was going to worry about getting Daniel home and settled.

Clearing his head, and focusing on what he needed to do, he knocked on the door.

"Daniel, I hoped you're dressed, 'cause I'm coming in."

Opening the door, he walked in to see Daniel sitting on the bed, dressed in the clothes he'd brought for him.

"Well it looks like you're all set, come on, lets go." Jack said, as he reached out for Daniel, forgetting that Daniel didn't liked to be touched.

Seeing the movement out of the corner of his eye, Daniel scrambled off of the bed onto the floor. Hugging his knees to his chest, Daniel rocked himself.

Kicking himself for forgetting, Jack went to the other side of the bed and crouched down in front of Daniel.

"I'm sorry, Daniel, I didn't mean to scare you, I'm not going to hurt you. You remember that, right?"

Hugging himself tighter, Daniel continued to rock himself.

"Come on Daniel, please talk to me. I just wanna take you home. You wanna go home, right. Come on, Danny, I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise, just look at me, please?"

Still shaking, Daniel peeked out from his arms to look at Jack.

"That's a little better. Don't you wanna go home, staying here in the infirmary isn't very much fun. You'll like being home a lot more than here. You can check out your room, like I promised, you'll like it."

Getting Daniel off of the floor had been the hardest part of the trip home. After that everything else was relatively easy, considering how skittish Daniel was at the present time, Jack thought that everything was going ok. Daniel had fallen asleep pretty much as soon as the car had started moving. Now they were home, Daniel was safely tucked away in bed, and Jack was making dinner for the both of them, on the off chance that Daniel woke up and wanted to eat, which was something Jack was doubting at the moment, but it was better to be safe than sorry. So he finished cooking and did the dishes before he sat down to eat his meal.

Finally sitting at the table in front of his dinner, Jack could think clearly now. Which was a good thing, because he had a very big decision to make, one in big glowing neon letters. DANIEL. He loved Daniel. He loved him just as much as he loved his son, Charlie. He didn't know when it had happened, but it did, and there was nothing he could do to change that. If he was honest with himself, which was something he prided himself in being able to do, that wasn't the problem. Loving Daniel was the simple part; the hard part was going to be figuring out what he needed to do. Daniel was a wreck. He'd just spent weeks being tortured and brutalized. He wasn't speaking, and that was just the least of his problems. The nightmares would be coming soon. As messed up as he was right now, he was going to need a stable environment. The only things that Jack could do is to either send him to live in a home, or take care of Daniel himself. Jack didn't want to send Daniel away. He was the only person that Daniel trusted right now, and sending him away would only do more harm than good, he didn't want to break that trust. But taking care of him himself would mean that he would be stuck earth-side, and at home, but it wouldn't necessarily be permanent, at least until Daniel was okay. So his mind was made up, he'd stay home and take care of Daniel, do half days at the mountain, and only go off world if it was absolutely necessary. Right now Daniel needed him a lot more than the SGC. Now he needed to tell Hammond and his team what he'd decided to do.

Jack rushed to the door. He was expecting his teammates over for a get together. He opened the door to see Teal'c and Carter, with a side dish and a case of beer.

"Hello, sir."

"Good afternoon, O'Neil."

"Hey, guys. And its Jack, Carter, we're on downtime."

"Sorry sir, I mean Jack."

"Not needed. Come on, the meats on the grill. Leeson is out back already, so just put the beer in the cooler and makes yourselves at home."

"Sounds like a plan. Jack."

Teal'c went outside to sit on the deck with their resident linguist, while Carter dropped the beer into the cooler before pulling a chair up next to them. Jack checked the meat on the grill.

"Everything is looking good so far, I'll be back in a minute guys."

He left his team out on the deck to go back into the house and get Daniel. The last few weeks had been rough for the both of them. Daniel was only sleeping a few hours at night before he would wake up from a nightmare. And there was nothing Jack could do. Trying to comfort him only made it worse. Earlier in the week the screaming got so bad, one of his neighbors called the cops. He had to explain the situation to the officers, and a crowd of nosy neighbors, while Daniel was crying in the other room. Besides that, he wasn't eating. Jack had to do everything short of strap Daniel to a chair and hand feed him to get him to eat. On top of everything, Daniel still wasn't speaking, which just made everything 10 times worse. No speaking, or head shaking, or shoulder shrugging, no communication of any kind. Jack was at a loss, but he wasn't going to give up on Daniel. Not when he needed Jack more than ever.

"Daniel, I'm coming in." He knocked on the door before he opened it.

Daniel was sitting on his floor, looking at a book that Sam had picked out for him. It was a picture book about the great pyramids. Something Daniel was guaranteed to like. He was dressed in pair of black shorts and a dark green t-shirt,

Jack walked into the room and crouched down in front of Daniel.

"Come on Danny. It's almost time to eat. You can't stay in here all day."

Putting down his book, Daniel got up from the floor and left his room. Jack followed close behind, when Daniel stopped in the middle of the kitchen, staring out at the backyard, Jack was right there to calm him down.

"Don't worry, Danny, there friends, it's just Cater and Teal'c, they haven't seen you in a while, and Leeson is just as friendly. You don't have to be afraid of them, besides, I'll make sure nothing happens to you, I promise, okay?"

Looking up from under his bangs Daniel looked at Jack for the first time in nearly a month. And what Jack saw made his heart swell. Daniel was trusting him.

"So are you gonna come outside with everyone."

Looking between the backyard and Jack, Daniel nodded tentatively.

"Okay, lets go outside before everyone wanders where I disappeared to."

Jack stepped outside, with Daniel standing behind him.

"You can sit over there by the tree until everything is finished, its quiet and there's plenty of shade, I'll call you when everything is done, okay?"

Jack watched as Daniel went to sit at the other end of the yard. He checked the grill again before going to sit with the rest of his team.

" How is he doing, colonel?" Leeson asked as Jack took a chair and sat down with the rest of is teammates.

"As well as you can expect considering everything he's been through. He doesn't like for anyone to touch him, he still hasn't said anything, and the nightmares are as bad as you can imagine. One of the neighbors called the cops not too long ago. I knew what I was getting into before I decided to bring him home."

"Well you must have made some progress. I mean he's out here, even if he isn't sitting with us, you got him to come outside, that has to mean something."

"It does. He's starting to open up again. I think he finally realizes that he can trust me. I mean, he knew that already, but after what Shaver put him through, that trust was broken, pretty much non-existent, I think it's finally on the mend now. He's coming out of the dark."

"All will be well in time, O'Neil, I believe that Daniel Jackson has a stronger spirit than we think."

Lunch turned out a lot better than everyone though it would be. For once, Jack didn't turn the meat into charcoal. It actually tasted like bar-b-q. So everyone was sitting around the table, eating steak and hot dogs, the only thing Jack bothered to buy.

Even Daniel was sitting at the table, next to Jack, as close as he could get without sitting on his lap. It was a little awkward trying to eat with someone sitting that close to you, but Jack managed just fine. He was happy that Daniel was being clingy, even if it made eating impossible. It was better than him sitting inside all day. Besides Daniel wanting to be joined to Jack at the hip, the kid was getting along fine. He was actually eating his food, instead of pushing it around his plate like he usually did.

"I didn't know you could actually cook Jack. This is the first time you haven't scorched the food."

"Why thank you Carter. I'll keep your opinion in mind."

"Glad to be of service, Jack."

"Well, everyone take your time. I've got some stuff we need to talk about when you're done."

Jack looked up from his plate to look at his team. Leeson and Carter were looking at each other.

"What is it guys."  
"Um."

"Well."

"Spit it out already."

"Well, sir, Jack, we already know what you're gonna say."

"Oh really?" Jack sat back and looked at his team

"Yeah, we do. And we wanted to say that we're behind you. Daniel really does need you right now, and if staying here with him is what you need to do, then we support you."

"What makes you think that's what I was going to say?"  
"Because we know you, sir."  
"And you would never let mental health get a hold of someone you care about. Besides, we've decided that we kill you if you did that."

"That's a little on the extreme side guys."

"Well Teal'c is fond of Danny boy, so you can see why we wouldn't want to upset the balance."

"Is this true, T?"  
"Very much so, O'Neil, Daniel Jackson is someone I would give my life to protect, and I would cause great harm to anyone that does not have his best interest in mind."

"Well I appreciate the warning. Why do you guys care so much? You've only seen him a few times."  
"He grows on you, we can't explain it, but we can't help caring about the kid."  
"Wow, is there anything else you wish to tell me at this moment in time?"  
"Not at this moment in time, O'Neill."  
"Well that's refreshing. Since we got all of the serious talking out of the way, what should we do now?"

" It's still kinda early, how about a game of football?"  
"Carter, you just want a reason to tackle us guys."  
"Shut up Nathan. You know you like it."

"That's beside the point."

Rolling her eyes, Carter got up from her seat, and stretched.

"Well, Teal's and I are gonna enjoy a game. If u wanna join us, you're welcome to."

With that Carter and Teal'c went around the side of the house to play in the front yard. Watching his 2 teammates, Leeson shrugged his shoulders and downed the rest of his beer.

"Oh well, there are things worse than getting tackled by Sam."

Laughing, Jack watched his resident culture expert and geek go walk toward his slaughter.

Jack was lounging in his lawn chair. Being out in the sun was doing wanders for his mental well-being. And he could work on his tan. It seemed to be doing Daniel some good as well. He didn't have that far away, dazed look on his face anymore. He was actually interacting with the world around him. Which had Jack breathing a sigh of relief, and smiling to himself, he should of thought of bringing him outside earlier.

"Hey Danny, you look like you're enjoying yourself today."

Turning around from his spot on the grass next to Jack, Daniel looked up at him and smiled and nodded. It was the first time Jack had seem him smile in a long time, and it warmed his heart.

Looking at the happiness radiating off of Daniel's face, the pure joy that he could see in him, Jack knew that everything was going to be okay.


	5. Chapter 5

ATFERMATH

"Come on, Danny, we're gonna be late!"

Jack wasn't in a good mood this morning. The last few months had been especially trying for him. There were a lot of ups and downs throughout the time. When they had first got Daniel back, he'd been a shell of his former self, jumpy and scared, barely able to let anyone near him without flinching or cowering in away. Eventually Daniel had become more of his old self, interacting more with the outside world, instead of sitting in a corner and keeping to himself. But they still had a long way to go. He still shied away from people when they tried to touch him. The only exception was Jack, and even that had its limits. The nightmares were as bad as ever, neither one of them were getting more than three or four hours of sleep at night. Jack had finally, resorted to letting Daniel sleep in the bed with him, both of them dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt. (Daniel nearly freaked when he'd tried to wear just his boxers.) That had helped the nightmares some, but they still came. Jack could handle all of this; it wasn't those things that were nagging him. Even though Daniel was making so much progress, doing so well, he still wasn't talking. And it was driving Jack insane. How was he supposed to know what was wrong or how to fix it if Daniel couldn't tell him how to fix it? He'd kept his anger and frustration in check for over a month. Letting Daniel go at his own pace, he told him self that Daniel would speak when he was ready.

But some days he just didn't feel like dealing with it. Some days he wished that Daniel would snap the fuck out of it and come back down to earth.

"For the last time, we have to go Daniel. Damn it, hurry the hell up, breakfast is ready."

Jack was rushing through the house, trying to get everything straight before he left for the base. Breakfast was on the table, and he'd already dressed and was ready to leave, the only thing that wasn't in place was Daniel. He'd been calling him for the last 45 minutes, between cooking and setting the table, and he had yet to come downstairs. Waiting for Daniel to come downstairs, he finished washing the dishes he'd used to make breakfast, and sat down to eat his own food.

He knew that he needed to calm down and stop letting his frustration get the best of him, but a man could only take so much. He'd only gotten an hour of sleep the night before, at best, and he was starting half days at the base today. He was tired and cranky, not to mention the fact that he forgot to buy coffee the other day, so he was also caffeine deprived, so he figured he could cut himself some slack this time around. It's not like Daniel was doing everything on purpose. The kid couldn't help the fact that he was having nightmares. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't go to sleep at night without a nightlight. There was only one person to blame for that, and he was locked away waiting for his court date.

But none of that changed the fact that Jack was emotionally drained, sleep deprived and physically and psychologically exhausted. He felt like crawling back into bed for a year. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option at this moment in time. Besides, he only had to go into work until one instead of five or six, if he made it in for the morning. He could live through that, and Teal'c promised to watch over Daniel until he was done for the day; the gate was going through maintenance, so all SG teams were earth bound until further notice. So everything for his first few days back on base was worked out.

Checking his watch, he saw that he had an hour before he told the General to expect him to be in for work, and the base was a half hour away. It looked like Daniel would be eating his meal in the car. Putting his own dishes in the sink to be washed when they got back from the mountain, Jack put Daniel's food into a travel container, and grabbed him a bottle of juice out of the fridge.

Deciding against yelling for Daniel again, Jack headed upstairs to go get him this time. Checking his room first, he saw that the bed was still messed up, and Daniel wasn't in it anymore. He checked his bathroom, and found that everything was in the same place that he'd left it when he'd gotten ready that morning. The hall bathroom was the complete opposite. Daniel's pajamas were in several different places, his shirt was by the tub, and his pants were on the opposite side of the bathroom. There was shaving cream and toothpaste all over the sink, and quite a bit on the mirror. If they weren't already behind schedule, Jack would have laughed at the condition of his hall bathroom, instead he turned off the light and told himself to remember to clean it when he got home. The only place left to check was Daniel's room. So Jack headed toward the door, which was open, but he couldn't see if there was anyone in it from this angle. Rounding the corner around the door, he walked into the room. Like he had thought, Daniel was in his room. He was already dressed in the clothes that Jack had put out for him. The khaki pants and navy polo shirt made him look like he was going to school instead of a top-secret military base.

_Well at least he's in his clothes this morning. That's always a plus._

Last week when they'd gotten ready to leave the house, Daniel was still in his pajamas. When he'd tried to get him to change, Daniel had freaked and crawled under the bed, trying to protect himself from an attack that was never coming. Jack had gotten so frustrated, trying to get Daniel from under the bed, that he'd scrapped the outing and decided to watch the hockey game he was taping instead.

He knew that Daniel couldn't help the way he reacted. He knew that it wasn't Daniel's fault he reacted the way that he did, but it didn't make the situation any better. And it didn't make any of it go away.

So, Daniel was dressed, and had his shoes on, which would of made things easier. Except for the fact that his shoes didn't match, and they were also on the wrong feet. Sighing to himself Jack leaned against the doorframe, staring into the room. It didn't look like they would be on time today. He should have known that trying to make it in before noon wasn't going to happen. Jack hadn't gotten to sleep before 1am, and he was sure Daniel had gotten even less. He'd found out that Daniel usually didn't fall asleep until dawn, when he could see the sun coming in through the window. Then he would spend most of the day sleeping, or napping until Jack woke him up. Usually during the day he would either sleep on the couch, or in his bed. Sometimes, though, the nightmares were so bad that he would have to stay with Jack, either curling up next to him on the couch, or sitting close by while Jack worked on various household projects, and caught up with some of his paperwork from base.

So it looked like they weren't going in right away, he didn't have the heart to wake Daniel up when he was sleeping so soundly, besides, he could use the time to get some things ready. So while Daniel slept, Jack spent time going over the paperwork that he'd brought home with him. Sitting down in the living room with his paperwork on the table, Jack got to work filling out and signing off on various items the General wanted him to look over. Some of the things he was forced to read seemed useless, did the General really need him to confirm how much tissue the guys in supply needed to order. Is it really that important?

It took him a little more than an hour to read over and sign the various memos and reports. When he was done, he put them all back in their folder, and checked his watch. Then he went and checked on Daniel again. Going into the room, he saw that Daniel was still sleep, so decided to wake him up, he could always sleep in the car.

"Hey, come on buddy, time to wake up." Jack gently shook Daniel's shoulder, and stepped back, when he jerked himself awake.

"Come on kid, time to leave for the mountain."

Sitting up on the bed, Daniel stretched and yawned,

Laughing to himself, Jack looked at Daniel. His clothes were rumpled, hair was a mess, and his shoes were 2 different colors.

"Okay, lets get things straightened out before we leave."

Grabbing the right shoes, Jack handed them to Daniel to put on. While Daniel was busy with that, he went into the hall bathroom to get a comb, when he came back, Daniel had finished putting on his shoes, on the right feet, (thankfully), Jack waited for him to finish tying his shoes. Then he combed his hair for him.

"Okay, that looks marginally better, maybe I should just have it cut, less hassle."

Gathering up his files from the living room, Jack grabbed his keys. Making sure that they had everything for the day, they headed out towards the truck. With Daniel safely buckled in, Jack started the car and they left for the mountain.

The drive out was uneventful, Daniel slept for the whole drive to the mountain, and through all the driving check- points. Finally making it to the parking lot, Jack got out of the car and opened the back.

"Come on Danny, it's time to wake up."

Stretching and yawning, Daniel opened his bleary eyes and looked at Jack.

"Hey, buddy, we're at the mountain. It's time for you to see the doctor and for me to get some work done."

Rubbing his eyes Daniel unbuckled himself and stumbled out of the cab. Missing the step, Jack caught him before he was able to get up close and personal with the pavement.

"Looks like someone isn't fully awake yet."

Smiling, Jack headed towards the elevators and the next set of checkpoints, with Daniel close behind.

After checking in with the General Jack dropped off the finished paperwork. Dreading looking in his office to see the new stack, he went drop Daniel off at the infirmary. Walking down the hallway, they got into elevator. Jack watched the doors close while Daniel stood in the other corner of the car. Watching the numbers descend, he watched Daniel out of the corner of his eye. He was leaning in the corner of the car, scowling to himself. The car stopped one level down, and three airmen entered. When the three other people entered the elevator, Daniel's stance changed. He cowered further into the corner and hugged himself.

"Afternoon colonel."

"Afternoon, airman."

Seeing Jack greet the men Daniel calmed down slightly, but still stayed in his protective stance. Sighing to himself, Jack continued to watch the numbers and Daniel at the same time. Daniel stayed that way for the entire ride down, when they got to their floor, Jack said goodbye to the two airmen and they got off of the elevator. Walking down the halls a few people acknowledged the fact that they were back, stopping to say hi to the colonel, or waving to them. Just as they were getting to their destination, they ran into Makepeace, the leader of the marines unit, and someone Jack wasn't too fond of. He was a nice guy, but not a person Jack would want to spend a lot of time with if it could be avoided.

"O'Neill, how's it going? Haven't seen you in a while."

"You know, same as always." Smiling, Makepeace looked over Jack's shoulder and saw Daniel.

"Hi Daniel, glad to see that you're doing better." the last time he'd seen Daniel was when he'd been rescued from Shaver. Covered in blood and god knows what else, in shock and screaming his head off, he was doing a hell of a lot better than he was at that time, then again, almost anything was better than that.

Jack "felt" Daniel shrink into himself and try to hide from Makepeace.

"Hey, I'll catch up with you later, Daniel has an appointment with Frasier, and I have god knows how much paper work waiting for me in my office."  
"Okay, not a problem, we'll catch up later."  
With that they went their separate ways. Makepeace to wherever he was going and Jack and Daniel around the corner to the infirmary.

Frasier was waiting for them when they entered. There were no teams off world, so the infirmary was quiet today when Jack and Daniel entered. Nurses were bustling around fluffing pillows and straightening beds, but there no were actual patients in there at the time.

Looking around and seeing this, Jack walked over to Frasier's office and knocked on the door.

"Yo doc, you're two favorite people are here to visit you."

"One out of two isn't that bad considering it is you Jack."

"Aww, come on Doc, you don't mean that. You know you love me."

"As much as you love getting a tetanus shot, Daniel on the other hand, is one of my favorite people."  
From behind Jack, Daniel peeked over his shoulder and smiled at Janet.

She smiled back at him and turned to Jack,

"So, how are you guys doing?"

"As right as rain, Doc. Couldn't be better."  
Laughing at Jack's antics, Janet turned to Daniel again.

"Daniel, can you go wait outside. I'll be out to give you your check-up in a minute. Then Teal'c we'll be here to pick you up, close the door on your way out." Daniel smiled shyly and nodded.

Jack made himself comfortable in the chair on the opposite side of the desk and watched Daniel leave the room.

Turning back to Janet he saw the smile fade a little on her face.

"So Jack how is everything, really?"  
"Fine, really…"  
looking at the expression on Janet's face, Jack stopped.

Taking a deep breath, he started again

"The nightmares are still bad, probably worse, and he's still not talking. I'm not getting any sleep and half the time I wanna yell at him for not saying anything, other than that, we're doing okay."

"What has his therapist said?"  
"She said that after something like this his reactions are pretty normal. That Daniel will talk when he's ready, and that putting him in a treatment center at this point in time would be either really good, or the most horrible in the universe. She was leaning more towards the 'horrible idea' aspect of the conversation."  
"Are the sessions helping any?"  
"To be honest, I don't know. They pretty much just sit in the living room for an hour, other than that, I don't know what goes on. If they talk I'm pretty sure the conversations are all one sided."  
"Well, there's only so much she can do. Until Daniel starts talking, there wont be a whole lot of progress."

"I know, Janet." Jack said wearily.

"you just have to be patient."

"I know."  
"He'll finish coming out of his shell when he want to."

"I know, Janet."

"You just have to wait…"

"For crying out loud Janet, don't you think I know that? That doesn't make it any fucking easier! Damn it!! I'm there everyday. Every goddamn day and night I'm there. Through the nightmares and flashbacks I'm there. You aren't there at night when he wakes up from a nightmare screaming and crying. you aren't there trying to comfort him, and getting more screaming and crying for your efforts. You don't have to tackle him into a bear hug when he has a flashback in the middle of the night, and watch and feel him struggle, you don't have too see the look on his face, begging you not to hurt him. none of you people know what I deal with on a daily basis, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit here and listen to your patronizing fucking speech. So excuse me if I feel the need to correct you. I'm not dumb, I'm not one of these rookies you see coming through the SGC every couple of months. I've been in the military for 20 years. I know what trauma can do to a person, and what happen to Danny was the worse thing I've ever seen. I know that he isn't just gonna wake up one morning and suddenly be okay. So can the 'self-righteous doctor knows it all' speech for me, please. Now I'm going to leave before I say something out of line, thank you Dr. Frasier, I'll see you later."  
With a shocked look on her face, Janet watched as Jack left the room. She didn't know what to think, so she turned to her desk and continued her work.

Jack was fuming!

_Who the hell did she think she was talking to? Some clueless kid fresh out of boot camp. _

Everything she had told him were things he knew from experience. They were things that he'd seen in friends, or experienced first hand. He didn't expect her to tell him it would all be better in the next morning. He just wanted someone to vent on. Someone who would just sit and listen to him. All she had succeeded in doing was pissing him off. If he hadn't left when he did he would of done something he'd of regretted later. Which is the reason he was heading to the gym, he had an emergency appointment with a punching bag. He was to wound up to do any kind of work, which was the reason he'd come in today, so he needed to get calmed down to get his work done, or before he did something stupid; again.

Sitting near the bed in Teal'cs room, Daniel was looking at the pictures in his book. Teal's was sitting in the middle of the room performing kel'no'reen. He was also secretly watching Daniel. He was well aware of the strain Daniel's situation was having on Jack. It had been 6 months since Daniel had been kidnapped and assaulted by Shaver. There were still a lot of things that Daniel wasn't comfortable with, and apparently talking was one of them. Fortunately, silence was something that Teal'c didn't mind.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it from his powerful chest, Teal'c ended his meditation and opened his eyes. Smiling, he saw that Daniel was still looking at the book he'd been given. It seemed that a lot of people were giving Daniel books, some about Egypt, or Greek mythology, a few other choice cultures, but mostly Egypt. The book that he was looking at now was about Greek mythology, something that Teal'c was only slightly familiar with.

There was a rapping at the door. Looking at the clock that was present in his room, he assumed it was O'Neill.

Standing up from where he'd been sitting on the floor, he looked down at Daniel. Patting him on the shoulder he noted that Daniel tensed under his hand, but he didn't shy away as he did with most other people, it was a step forward.

He went to the door and opened it to see that it was indeed O'Neill.

"Hey, how's it going T."  
"It is going well, O'Neill. Daniel has been quiet and viewing his book since he's been here."

"Well that's good. Well I'm hungry, and I'm pretty sure that Daniel is to. So if you want to, you're more than welcome to join us."

"Thank you O'Neill, I believe that I will oblige your offer."

"All right then, come on guys, I'm starving."

Heading out of the room the guys headed for the commissary for lunch.

Jack, Teal'c and Daniel were sitting at a commissary table eating there lunch.

The commissary was relatively quiet. The lunch rush had ended over an hour ago, which was a good thing, since Daniel was wary around large crowds.

"So Teal'c, what the hell are you eating over there."

"I have decided to sample today's special, O'Neill."

"So in other words, you have no clue what's on your plate?"

" The cooks informed me that this dish is called spaghetti casserole."

Looking at the plate, Jack glances up at Teal'c

"I can tell you from personal experience, spaghetti isn't supposed to be green, T."

Giving Jack a dubious look, Teal'c continued to eat his meal.

Jack decided to return to his own meal.

Digging into his dessert of raspberry pie, he didn't see the airman coming toward him until he was already by the table.

Looking up from his plate, Jack addressed the man

"Can I help you, sergeant?"

"General Hammond want you in his office, sir."

"Thank you, sergeant, is that all?"

"Yes sir, that was all he said sir, nothing else."  
"Tell him I'll be there in five minutes, dismissed."  
With that the airman left the commissary.

Jack watched him leave, then went back to eating his pie. The General could wait until he finished his pie.

Signing off on another requisitions order, Hammond told whoever was knocking on his door to come in. looking up he saw that it was Jack.

"Take a seat O'Neill."

Jack took a seat in the chair on the other side of Hammond's desk, and waited for the General to address him.

Putting his paperwork to the side, Hammond looked steadily at Jack.

"I just received a call from Leavenworth two hours ago. They informed me that Lt. Shaver died last night. Apparently he suffered a severe allergic reaction and went into anaphylactic shock."

"How did that happen, if he was allergic to anything wouldn't the commissary make his food separately?"

"That is usually the case, but apparently part of his medical records were lost at some point of time."

"Well then it was an accident."

"I doubt that."  
"Well I wasn't aware of it, although I'm probably not the only one who wanted to kill the man."

"Are you claiming that you had nothing to do with this?"

"If I was going to have him killed, I would have had him beaten to death, although I'll give whoever thought of this way points for creativity."

Giving Jack a once over, he shook his head.

"Very well colonel, as you probably already know, there will be an official investigation, a representative will be here to question you tomorrow, until you are cleared, you will be confined to base. I will make arrangement for you and Daniel to stay here until further notice."

"I understand sir."

"Very well colonel, dismissed."  
With that Jack left the General's office.

Shaver was dead, and to be honest General Hammond wasn't sorry in the least bit. He personally hoped the man suffered every minute he was dying, but that wasn't something he could say out loud, so he kept that little bit to himself.

After finding Teal'c in the gym working out, Jack went to Sam's lab, where Teal'c said he'd dropped Daniel off.

"What are you kids up to at this time of day?"  
"Hello, sir."

"Hello to you too Carter. How's Daniel been?"

"No trouble what so ever. He's been a perfect angel the whole time. What did the General want, sir?"  
"Nothing really, he just informed me that Shaver is dead."

Her head popping up from the project, Sam looked at Jack.

"He's dead? How did that happen?"

"Anaphylactic shock, his med records were incomplete."

"Huh, that sounds like a crappy way to die."

"You don't sound like you're to surprised about it."

Looking up from her work, Sam looked at her commanding officer.

"Well, considering what a piece of work he was, I'm going to assume we aren't the only people that wanted him dead. And to be honest, I'm not ashamed to admit I'm immensely happy that the fucker is dead."

"That's some mouth you got on you Carter." Jack said, his eyebrows arching up to his hairline.

Rolling her eyes Sam continued to work.

"So, are you and Daniel heading home?'

"Nope, me and Danny boy get to bunk down here on base until the brass is certain that Shaver death was an accident. Or that I had nothing to do with it. Which ever comes first."

"So Hammond thinks that you're responsible for his death?"

"Naw, I told Hammond that if I had been responsible, I would have had him beaten to death."

"That would have been too nice, sir. So how long are you stuck here on base?"

"I don't know, probably no longer than a week."

"That's not to bad."

"No, its not."

"So what are guys going to do?"

"Well, I'm still on the clock for the next hour, so technically I should be in my office. Bored off my ass, going over meaningless paperwork. But, since I actually cleared out all my work, I think I'm gonna stop early. Maybe try to find a movie to put on or something."

"Sounds like a plan sir. So does that mean you're gonna let me finish my work here?"

"Ha ha, Carter. Daniel and I will be on our merry way then. Come on Daniel, let's get out of here."

Hopping off of his chair, Daniel got ready to leave with Jack.

"I didn't say Daniel had to leave, sir. He wasn't keeping me from my work."

"You know, Cater if I didn't like you, I'd get you for that one."

"I know sir."

Rolling his eyes, Jack gathered up Daniel, and they left Sam's lab.

After looking around the movie selection available to him, Jack had found a copy of Star Wars for them to watch. Daniel had actually liked the movie. Or at least that's what Jack was assuming, since he'd watched it three times before Jack had put another one in for the sake of his own sanity. Daniel was now sound asleep on the bed, and Jack was enjoying one of his favorite movies in piece and quiet. Or as quiet as it could be when you're watching Dawn of the Dead. Of course he would never admit to anyone that he enjoyed watching zombie movies of any kind. They were a guilty pleasure of his, something he preferred to keep to himself. So, he was sitting in a reclining chair, and enjoying his movie over a steak dinner and apple pie. Being second in command of a top-secret military base had its perks. And he was enjoying every one of them at the moment.

A knock on the door brought him back to reality. Pausing the movie, he got up and opened the door.

"T, nice of you to drop by."  
"How is your evening progressing, O'Neill?"

"It's going well, big guy, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"There are no woods present here in this facility O'Neill."

"Never mind. So did you wanna come in or are you just going to stand out here in the hallway." Jack said, laughing to himself.

"I would enjoy that very much."

Teal'c entered the room and closed the door behind. Jack was already back in his chair turning the movie back on.

"So, why are you here again, Teal'c?"  
"I have finished my nightly kel-no-reen and I thought I would pay you and Daniel a visit."

"Oh, well make yourself comfortable."

"I will."

With that, Jack went back to watching his movie and Teal'c joined him.

Whimpers from the bed alerted Jack that Daniel was in the middle of a nightmare. The whimpers suddenly progressed to gasps that erupted into screams and cries.

Launching himself out of his chair, Jack was on the bed in a record amount of time.

"Daniel, come on wake up. You're just dreaming."

Jerking himself awake Daniel rolled off the bed and into a corner. Trembling, and still half asleep, he shook his head, wishing that assailants only he could see would just leave him be.

"Daniel, you're just dreaming, wake up."

Shaking his head, Daniel backed himself up further into the corner.

"It's safe now Daniel, you're safe. You don't have to be scared anymore."

Looking up into Jack's face, Daniel began to calm down and uncurl himself, stretching out his legs and hugging himself instead.

"Hey, you with me now Danny?" nodding his head, Daniel wiped his face off with his shirt.

"Good. Come on and get back in bed."

Getting up from the floor, Daniel got back under the covers and laid down. Smoothing out the cover Daniel looked up at Jack.

"All right, now you can go back to sleep, I'll still be here when you wake up."  
Nodding Daniel turned over and closed his eyes. Exhaustion caused him to go back to sleep within minutes.

"It appears that he is asleep again, O'Neill."  
"Yeah, sometimes he goes back to sleep pretty fast, if I'm in the room with him. Usually though it takes him hours to when he has a nightmare."  
"He is still suffering from these bad dreams I will presume, then."  
"Yeah, they happen pretty much every night."  
"Staying on here at the SGC is most likely not helping the situation."

"You're probably right T. but there isn't really a whole lot I can to about that. Until this situation blows over, we're pretty much stuck here."

"May I suggest you let me take on the care of Daniel for a few days."

Sitting back in his chair, Jack shook his head.

"I don't think that's such a good idea. Daniel hasn't been out of my care for any long period of time since he got out of the infirmary, and to be honest I don't know if it would be such a good idea yet. He isn't anywhere near healed yet."  
"That is why I am making the proposal, O'Neill. You have done all that you can, and with great sacrifice to yourself. It is time for you to accept the help of others. If you do not take this time to help yourself you will be of no use to Daniel."  
"It would be nice to have some time to myself, especially with this whole thing. But I don't want to abandon him."

"You will not be abandoning him, he will be fine. This time will be beneficial to both of you."

"I guess you're right. But promise me that if I don't want to go through with this anymore, you'll let me call it off."

"You have my word."

"All right, I'll tell Daniel in the morning what we plan on doing."

'Very well, I'll be here in the morning as well, so Daniel can become more use to my presence."

"Ok, Teal'c, I'll see you in the morning then."

"Good night O'Neill."

Bowing, Teal'c left the room, and returned to his quarters.

Jack turned off the television and sat for a while. Daniel was going to be away from him for the first time in months. Of course he'd see him pretty much every day, he had to come to the mountain, he had worked to do. But it was still hard. And how was this going to feel to Daniel, would he realize that this was for him, or would he feel like Jack was betraying him?

He had a lot of thinking to do before he was going to go to sleep.

The next morning started out pretty normal for Jack and Daniel. Jack woke up first, got in the shower, and dressed, and then he took out clothes for Daniel to wear for the day. Next he woke Daniel up and led the half sleep man into the bathroom, where he deposited him onto the toilet lid while he started the shower for him.

"Come on, kid, time for a shower."

Making sure Daniel was fully awake Jack left the bathroom. Being in the military for 99 of his adult life, Jack was pretty comfortable with being nude around other men, but he didn't think that Daniel felt the same way. After everything that the younger man had been through, he doubted that he be that trusting for a while. Leaving the bathroom, Jack sat in the chair and turned on the television. He put on another movie and waited for Daniel to finish in the bathroom.

Turning from the T.V, Jack saw that Daniel was done in the bathroom, and he'd dressed in the clothes Jack had picked out for him.

"You look like you're ready and set for the day. Come on I need to talk to you."

Daniel sat down on the bed, waiting for Jack to talk.

"Me and Teal'c were talking for a while last night, and he said that he wants you to stay with him for a while. It's only for a little bit. How does that sound?"

Looking at Jack, Daniel shrugged his shoulders, and chewed on his bottom lip.

"Well, we're going to try it out for a while, if you don't like it Teal'c will tell me and you wont have to stay with him anymore, how okay."

Nodding his head, Daniel agreed.

Jack was getting ready to say something else to Daniel, when there was a knock on the door.

Opening the door he saw that it was Teal'c, and stepped aside to let the bigger man in.

"Mornin' T, how is everything?"  
"Everything is well, O'Neill. I trust that you and Daniel are having a pleasant morning so far?"

"Yeah, no dire circumstances so far. Everything is going as well as can be expected."

"That is good. Are the two of you ready to eat this morning's meal?"

Nodding his head, Daniel put on his shoes.

"Well, that's one vote for eating, come on let's get out of here."

Handing Daniel a tray, Jack grabbed one for himself and started loading them up with food for the both of them. Making it through the line, he sat them down in a part of the commissary that wasn't crowded and waited for Teal'c to finish. Finishing up in line, Teal'c sat down at the table and started in on the smorgasbord that was currently occupying his tray.

"So what do you have planned for today, Teal'c?"

"I am currently being enlisted to train new recruits in the finer art of hand to hand combat."

"Sounds like a wonderland of fun. Daniel and I are going to the infirmary for his check-up, and then I'll drop him off with you and get to my work."

"Very well, O'Neill, I will see you then."

"Later Teal'c."

Finishing their meals, Jack and Daniel dumped their trays and left the commissary for the infirmary.

Entering the infirmary, Jack walked slightly behind Daniel, and glanced around for Janet. Seeing that the chief physician wasn't present, he breathed a sigh of relief and sat his ward on a bed and took the chair next to it.

"Good thing the Doc isn't here yet."  
"And why would that be?"

Jack looked around to see Frasier standing over him.

"Morning, Doc."  
"Good morning Colonel, I trust that you had a peaceful night."

"Uh, yeah. Look Doc, about yesterday.."

Holding up her hand, Frasier silenced Jack.

" Colonel, Jack, save it. We can talk about this later, when I'm done with Daniel, okay?"

"Okay. I'll just go wait in you're office for you. "

"That's fine, Colonel."

Looking over his shoulder, Jack stood as Frasier entered her office.

"Listen, Doc, I know I was out of line the other day."  
"Colonel, save it. I know that you are under a lot of pressure. Taking care of someone in Daniel's condition is a handful without the added trauma of what he's been through. You are only human, and I acknowledge the fact that you need to vent every once in a while."

"Thank you, Doc. If you weren't so understand I don't know what I would do. So how is Daniel doing?"

"You'd be sitting somewhere waiting for a court martial. As for Daniel's condition, he's fine. Physically there is no longer anything that you need to worry about."  
"That's good. You know Teal'c offered to take care of Daniel for a while."  
" I know, he talked to me before he asked you. The change of pace could do you both some good."

"Well if I have a Frasier seal of approval I guess I made the right decision."  
"If anything happens I'm sure Teal'c will contact you. Both you and Daniel, more importantly you Jack, could really use the break."  
"Well, I already talked to Daniel this morning, and explained everything that is going on. I'm pretty sure that he understands. He didn't seem to upset about the idea."  
"That's good to know."  
"Yeah. Well, I've got to get going, have to go do work and all that wonderful stuff. Teal'c is gonna come and pick Daniel up in a while, I'll see you later, Frasier."  
"Goodbye colonel, have a good day."  
"You too Doc."

Walking down the halls looking at a requisitions file Jack wasn't able to stop himself from running into the General's assistant.

"Sorry about that, SGT. Davis."

"No problem Colonel. As a matter of fact, I was looking for you anyway. Lieutenant Colonel Stiles is here to question you."

"Thank you, which room is waiting in?"  
"He's waiting in the briefing room. There isn't another briefing scheduled until tomorrow, so the General thought he could use it."

"Thanks, Walter, I'll see you later."

Jack headed toward the elevators and up a level. In the briefing room attached to the General's office was an officer wearing dress blues waiting for him.

"Hello Colonel O'Neill I'm Lieutenant Colonel Bethany Stiles."  
"I can't say that it's a pleasure to meet you considering the circumstances, but I am willing to help you however I can."

"That's all I can ask for, colonel. If you would just take a seat, we can start the interview and then you can be on your way."

The gym was relatively empty when Teal'c and Daniel got there. Heading towards the machines, Teal'c started his morning workout. Daniel wandered over to the boxing ring, before heading to the free weights and picking up one of the dumb bells. Not realizing how heavy it was, he picked it up, and almost dropped it. Putting it down on the floor, he rolled it. Seeing that it turned in circles, he rolled it again, and again. Twenty minutes later, he gave that up and decided to go for a walk.

Finishing his workout on the machines, Teal'c stood up and realized that Daniel was nowhere to be seen.

"Daniel. Daniel where are you?"

As he was leaving the gym, he heard a commotion coming from the other direction. Heading around the corner and leaving the gym, he came to the entrance to the locker rooms.

"What has transpired here?"  
"Some dude just walked into the women's locker room." One of the security details said.

"Yeah, kinda startled a few of the women, but other than that I think he scared himself more than he scared them. He's hulled himself up into a corner and he wont come out." The other guy said.

Teal'c looked at the two men, making them wander where they'd stashed a clean pair of underwear.

"Hey, don't worry, when we saw that he wasn't talking we realized who he was, we didn't do anything, we were just getting ready to call the colonel when you showed up."  
"Very well, sergeant, that will not be necessary, I will retrieve Daniel and we will leave you to your normal duties."

Looking into the locker room, he could see Daniel on the floor between a bench and lockers. Two of the women were crouching in front him, trying to get him out of the corner. Shaking his head, Daniel tried to burrow himself further into the corner, cringing when a lieutenant tried to touch his arm.

"Thank you, lieutenant Tagget and captain Douglas, I will retrieve Daniel and we will leave you to your devices."

Nodding the two women stood and left the locker room.

Teal'c slowly walked over to where Daniel was. His head was buried under his arms and he was trembling.

"Daniel, it is I, Teal'c, no one here is going to harm you." Inching closer, he reached out and took a hold of Daniel's arm.

Without warning, Daniel became a mass of arms and legs, kicking and thrashing against the larger man.

Clawing at Teal'c Daniel bolted out of the corner and ran for the opening into the hall. Catching the younger man before he made it out, Teal'c wrapped him into a bear hug and brought him down onto the ground. Daniel went down fighting and kept it up while Teal'c screamed at the guards to get Dr. Frasier.

Trying to calm him down, Teal'c spoke in a low and soothing voice, reassuring Daniel that everything was okay, and no one was going to hurt him. Daniel continued to fight him, and almost got free before Teal'c tightened his hold.

Finally, just as Daniel was starting to tire out, Janet arrived with a sedative. Renewing his struggle for a few moments, Janet delivered the injection, and watched as his body relaxed itself as his struggling helped deliver the drug throughout his system. Finally, when his body had given in, Teal'c released his hold on the young man, picking him up and putting him on the stretcher that the doctor had ready outside of the locker room. Janet rolled the stretcher down the hall and to the infirmary, with Teal'c following closely behind.

He had not expected Daniel to wander off in the short time they had been in the gym. He was so quiet that it was very easy to forget he was in the room. Teal'c was rarely so inattentive. But it had happened. Fortunately, the young man had not wandered far, and he was unharmed. Teal'c would just have to remember to watch him more closely, and perhaps provide him with something to do when he was working out or training others.

This was going to be much harder than he'd anticipated.

The interview had gone much better than he'd originally thought it would. Lieutenant Colonel Stiles was actually a pretty nice person, and the questioning was straightforward. Only once had he lost his temper, and the Lieutenant Colonel had been understanding of the whole thing, waiting for him to calm down and regain his composure before she continued with the questioning.

"Well I think that will be all, Colonel. I'll pass my finding onto my superiors. The rest of the investigation will take about another week, I'm sure that you will be cleared. Unless you have any questions, I'll leave you to finish whatever business you have."  
"So that's it? Does this mean that I can finally go home?"  
"Yes. I'll inform the General that you are no longer confined to the mountain."  
"Sweet."

Smiling at the colonel's remark, Stiles gathered her things and left the conference room.

Delighted that he no longer had to stay on base, Jack decided to go finish his work so that he and Daniel could go home. Then he remembered that Teal'c was taking care of Daniel for him and his spirits dampened a little. Daniel hadn't been out of his sight for months. He'd been there constantly, taking care of the other man and making sure new there was someone who cared about him.

He guessed that the split was good the both of them. Jack could get some much-needed R & R, and Daniel needed to get used to being away from him. Once he was better he'd be spending time in rehab to help relearn the skills he needed. So this time away from his guardian was good for him.

Telling himself that, Jack decided he'd check on Daniel in the morning, and decided to go to his office and then home instead of dropping by to see Teal'c. With that, Jack locked up his office and left the mountain. He swung by a local burger joint to get himself something to eat then went home. Finishing his food, Jack cleaned out his fridge and did the rest of the kitchen before he decided to turn in for the night.

White walls. Looking up from where he was laying that was the first thing that he saw. Turning his head he saw that Teal'c was sitting next to him.

"It would appear that you are awake now, Daniel. I trust that you are feeling better."

He pressed the button next to the bed to alert the nurses and Doctor Frasier that Daniel was awake.

The clicking of Janet's heels could be heard from the other side of the infirmary as she made her way over.

"Looks like someone is awake." Janet said smiling as she put her clipboard down on the bed. Taking his wrist she checked his pulse and then took his temperature.

"Well it looks like everything is okay. I'll get you something to eat and then you can leave with Teal'c. Okay?"  
Nodding his head, Daniel sat up in bed.

Teal'c followed Janet as she made her way into her office.

"Doctor Frasier is Daniel well?"  
"Besides the obvious problems, there is nothing wrong with Daniel. He had a flashback, and from what the colonel has told me this was bound to happen. He's suffering from what we call post-traumatic stress disorder. It happens to people who undergo severe emotional and psychological trauma. The only thing we can do for him is what we're already doing. In time he'll get better."  
"So there is nothing that I can do to prevent this from happening again?"  
"No, Teal'c, the only thing anyone can do is try to recognize what will trigger a flashback and try and help him through it."  
"Very well. I will try and remember this for the next time" bowing his head in farewell Teal'c left the office to go and sit with Daniel while he finished his meal.

Whistling as he walked down the halls, Jack made the usual stops to check in. happier then he'd been in a while. Or rather, more at ease than he'd been. He'd finished all of his backlogged paperwork, his house was clean, and he didn't have to be worried about going to jail for murder. This week that Teal'c had given him was a blessing. It had allowed him to get his head together and a much needed breather. Now he was ready to take things head on. Which was good, because both Daniel and Jack were going to have some major changes to their lives. Not only was Jack going back to work full time, Janet and Dr. Reynolds were discussing a curriculum for rehab, helping Daniel relearn some of the skills he'd lost. But besides that, Jack had gone on a few dates with Col. Stiles, and it was looking promising. Jack was just hoping that Daniel would warm up to it.

In his office, Jack was going through paperwork, again. There were new requisitions to go over and orders to sign off on. So he went through the stack, read the most important ones and signed them, the rest he put into another stack to read and work out later. Right now he was due in the meeting being held regarding Daniel's rehab therapy.

"Good morning, Colonel O'Neill."  
"Morning Frasier, Dr. Reynolds."  
Sitting down at the briefing table, they opened the folders that were in front of them.

"Colonel. It is nice to meet you. The folders in front of you are an overview of Daniel's current physical and psychological state. As Dr. Frasier has already told you, Daniel has made a full physical recovery. All of his injuries are healed. However, he is still suffering from the psychological effects of what happened. From what I've been able to gather from reports from both you and his therapist, he has some progress in this area."  
"Yeah. For a while he was pretty withdrawn. It was scary. He still doesn't talk, though, but we're getting close."  
"And how does he react around others?"  
"Not as extremely as he used to. But he still doesn't respond well to strangers. What does this have to do with everything, may I ask?"  
"As you know, Frasier and I want to get Daniel started on a rehab regiment. I need to know these things before I decide whether or not he will go to a day center or have an in home specialist. But it looks like I will be assigning him to an in-home specialist. They will help him with the skills he needs to gain, and it will also help you greatly since you will be returning to active duty within the next week."  
"Really? That's it? You're not going to try and make me place Daniel in an institution?"

"Unless that's what you want, no. There's no point in suggesting something that you're not going to agree to. Besides, not only did his therapist strongly oppose the idea, I feel the same. Unless he becomes a danger to others or himself, there is no reason for that. Hospitalizing him at this point in time would greatly undermine what trust he does have in people. If that is all you the questions you have, I will leave you to your work. If you have any questions, Dr. Frasier has my number."

"So what do you think, Colonel?"

"That went way better than I thought. You know Doc, I just noticed that you didn't really say a lot, in fact, did you say anything?"  
"I was just here to moderate, making sure you didn't make an ass of yourself."

"Well, thank you very much for the vote of confidence. I feel oh so wonderful about myself."

"Your welcome colonel. Now, I have work to get back to, and I believe you do as well."

Rolling his eyes, Jack left the doctor and headed for his own office. Where there was a substantial amount of paperwork and a few mission reports waiting for him.

Five o'clock rolled around and Jack was ready to leave. Saving what work he was doing on the computer he shut it down. Heading for his the locker room, he changed out of his uniform and into his civvies before heading for Teal'cs room. Knocking on the door he entered to find Teal'c in the middle of his kel-no-reen. Daniel was curled up on the bed, hugging what looked like a ball of fur.

"Teal'c, I see that Daniel has acquired a new friend this fine day."

"Indeed he has, O'Neill. One of the corpsmen female canine had offspring. The young lady thought that Daniel Jackson would appreciate having a pet. Although they are pleasant to look at, I must admit, they appear to be more work than one would initially think."

Smiling, Jack took a seat in a nearby chair.

"So I'm gone hazard a guess and say that Daniel and the runt over there gave you a bit of a workout this passed week?"

"It would appear that you have guessed correctly, O'Neill. However, it was not anything that I was incapable of handling."  
"So, how did Daniel do?"

"He had a flashback earlier in the week when he wondered into to women's locker room. Dr. Frasier had to administer a sedative, but nothing serious happened. Daniel Jackson experienced nightmares throughout the week and has been unable to sleep for more than a few hours. He has only been asleep for the past 20 minutes."

"Well, I bet that he'd be a lot more comfortable sleeping at home, I'll wake him up and we'll be on our way out."

With that, Jack went to wake up a less than cooperative Daniel. At which point Daniel attached himself to Jack's neck and refused to let go. After being hugged within an inch of his life, Jack gathered Daniel's stuff up, including their new ball of fur, and made for the exit after thanking Teal'c and saying his good-byes for the day.

Deciding that he didn't feel like cooking, Jack decided to go through the first drive thru he could find. Ordering for both him and Daniel, he put their drinks into the holder. Leaving the drive thru he pulled into the parking lot of the mini mall and stopped the car.

"Daniel, I need to go in here and get some stuff for the dog, wait right here and leave the doors locked. Do you understand?"  
Nodding his head, Daniel watched as Jack left the truck, locking all the doors before he went into the pet supply store. After a while, Daniel went back to petting his new friend.

Luckily for everyone involved, Jack had owned dogs all his life, and he knew exactly what to get. Hurrying through the store he bought a bag of dry food, a few cans of wet food, a dog bed, a bowl, leash, collar, and other assorted things needed, including a book on how to care for a dog, on the off chance he forgot something. He made a mental note to himself to remember to call the local vet and make an appointment for the coming weekend to get the little guy checked out. With his purchases in hand Jack loaded everything into the backseat of the truck, and headed for home.

Upon arriving back at the house, Jack got Daniel and the dog situated in the living room, then washed his hands and got dinner set up on the table before getting the dog's food set out for him. With everything ready Jack called Daniel to the table, setting the puppy up with his own bowl of food. He fixed Daniel's plate, and then sat down to eat his own meal.

With an uneventful dinner, Jack got the puppy settled, putting him somewhere where he wouldn't ruin the carpet, and putting up the baby safety gate. He and Daniel would work on paper-training him later. With that done, he got Daniel ready for bed. Making sure he showered, and dressed for bed. Wearing the t-shirt and sweats that Jack had set out for him. With his hair still wet and hanging in his face, Daniel brushed his teeth. Jack came in to check on him.

Picking up a towel, Jack started drying his hair.

"You're gonna get sick one of these days if you don't remember to dry your hair, Danny."

He chastised him gently, noting that even though Daniel tensed, he didn't flinch or try to shy away. Finishing up in the bathroom, Jack put on his own pajamas, and checked the house before getting in bed for the night. With the house secured, Jack went bed, Daniel already lying down on his preferred side of the bed.

"Goodnight, Daniel."

Lights out and everyone settled in, Jack closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

"Night, Jack." Daniel whispered to the sleeping man


End file.
